Elon Musk's X hit with $140 million EU fine for breaching content rules

"Elon Musk's social media company X was fined 120 million euros ($140 million) by EU tech regulators Friday for breaching EU online content rules, the first sanction under landmark legislation that will likely draw the ire of the US government. EU regulators said X's DSA violations included the deceptive design of its blue checkmark for verified accounts, the lack of transparency of its advertising repository and its failure to provide researchers access to public data."

"We are not here to impose the highest fines. We are here to make sure that our digital legislation is enforced and if you comply with our rules, you don't get the fine. And it's as simple as that, she told reporters. I think it's very important to underline that DSA is having nothing to do with censorship, Virkkunen said."

EU regulators imposed a €120 million fine on X for violating the Digital Services Act after a two-year investigation. Identified breaches included a deceptive blue check verification design, insufficient transparency of the advertising repository, and failure to grant researchers access to public data. Rival TikTok avoided a penalty by offering concessions. The EU framed the enforcement as defending digital and democratic standards and emphasized proportionality in penalties. The European Commission said the laws do not target any nationality. Commission tech chief Henna Virkkunen stressed that the DSA aims to enforce rules, not to censor.

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