EU slaps $140M penalty on Elon Musk’s X
Shafaq News – Brussels
On Friday, the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, fined Elon Musk’s social media platform X roughly $140 million for violating the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
According to international outlets, the case stemming from a two-year investigation launched in December 2023 marks the first penalty ever issued under the landmark online-platform law. The probe concluded that:
- X’s redesigned blue-check system — once a free verification badge for official accounts but now a paid feature open to any user — no longer guarantees authenticity and can be purchased by bots, a “deceptive design” the Commission said exposes users to scams and manipulation. The fine for this violation is about $52.5 million.
- X breached advertising-transparency requirements by “blurring the distinction” between ads and regular content, increasing the risk of financial scams. The platform also failed to provide an updated registry of advertisers, a gap the Commission warned is especially dangerous during elections when the origin of political messaging must be identifiable. This violation carries a fine of roughly $40.8 million.
- X refused to provide researchers with required data on views and likes, an obligation under the DSA meant to allow the study of systemic online risks. This breach amounts to nearly $46.6 million in fines.
Despite the scale of the penalty, it remains well below the DSA’s maximum fine of 6 percent of a company’s global turnover. Apple was fined $583 million and Meta $233 million in April 2025 under EU digital-competition rules, while Google has accumulated more than $8 billion in antitrust penalties.
US Vice President JD Vance criticized the Commission ahead of the announcement, accusing Brussels of promoting censorship and attacking American companies.
Rumors swirling that the EU commission will fine X hundreds of millions of dollars for not engaging in censorship. The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage.
— JD Vance (@JDVance) December 4, 2025
Two additional DSA investigations into X reportedly remain ongoing. One concerns the platform’s handling of illegal content, user-reporting tools, and its speed in removing flagged material, while the other examines X’s recommendation algorithms, particularly in relation to terrorist content and election-period influence operations.
X owner Elon Musk has not directly commented on the fine, but he reposted a statement by lawyer Preston Byrne urging the US Congress to pass the GRANITE Act, legislation that would let American companies challenge “foreign censorship attempts” — enabling X to sue the Commission in return.
The GRANITE Act would allow X to sue the European Commission in U.S. federal court for three times this amount, and get injunctive relief against the Commission's orders.Congress should enact it ASAP to head off this European censorship attempt. https://t.co/V9evaPhEME
— Preston Byrne (@prestonjbyrne) December 4, 2025
