If Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) breaks one of the EU’s important social media rules, the EU fines it $140 million. A lot of people see this case as a big test of how ready European leaders are to take on American tech giants, even if it makes the Trump administration angry.
Under Europe’s main rules for social media and online shopping, the Digital Services Act (DSA), X failed to meet its transparency obligations and was fined. It broke the law by making its “blue checkmark” appear to be something it’s not, keeping its advertising collection secret, and preventing academics from accessing public data. That’s the first DSA ruling for failing to follow the rules.
A lot of people are upset about the fine in the United States. Before the ruling, US Vice President JD Vance said on X, “There are rumours that the EU commission will fine X hundreds of millions of dollars for not censoring.” The EU should back free speech and stop going after American companies over trash. Musk wants the European Union to fail and no longer exist.
Rubio, who is the Secretary of State for the US, called the fine an “attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments.” Brendan Carr, the head of the US Federal Communications Commission, said that X was fined just for being a great tech company in the US.
How X broke the rules
The EU said that X’s use of the blue checkmark to show that an account is confirmed “deceives” users because anyone can pay to get the “verified” status without the company really checking out who is behind the account. This makes it hard for users to tell if the accounts and material they interact with are real. It also said that the practice violates the DSA’s rule against using misleading design practices in their services.
“This dishonesty leaves users open to scams, such as impersonation frauds, and other ways that bad people can trick them.” The DSA doesn’t require user verification, but it does make it clear that online sites can’t lie and say that users have been confirmed when they haven’t, the EU said.
Meanwhile, the bloc said that X’s ad store does not meet the DSA’s standards for openness and ease of use. It was the platform’s duty to let experts view its public data, but it didn’t do so. For example, X’s terms of service say that authorised researchers can’t access its public data on their own, even by scraping, the company said.
“X’s processes for researchers’ access to public data also put up unnecessary barriers, which hurts research into a number of systemic risks in the European Union,” it said.
The Digital Services Act’s most important parts
The DSA started working in 2023, and its goal was to “set rules for the duties of digital services, such as marketplaces, that connect consumers with goods, services, and content.” Some of its features are:
Social media companies must add “new procedures for faster removal” of material that is considered illegal or damaging, and users have the right to question this. Users need to know how their strategy for taking down material works. Users can appeal decisions to take down content and try to settle disputes without going to court.
- Of course, bigger platforms are more responsible.: The law abolished the “one size fits all” approach and made big tech companies more accountable. “Very Large Online Platforms” (VLOPs) and “Very Large Online Search Engines” (VLOSEs)—that is, platforms with more than 45 million users in the EU—must comply with stricter rules under the DSA.
- Supervision directly by the European Commission: The European Commission will keep an eye on these rules and make sure they are followed. This way, companies won’t be able to get around the laws at the member-state level.
- More openness about how algorithms work: VLOPs and VLOSEs will have to follow rules that make their algorithms more open and be closely looked at. They will also have to do systemic risk analysis and reduction to be held responsible for how their goods affect society. VLOPs need to let academics and authorities look at their data to make sure they are following the rules and find widespread risks of illegal or damaging material.
- More obvious ways to spot ads and find out who pays for them: Websites must make it easy for users to spot ads and figure out who shows or pays for them. They can’t show targeted ads to kids or based on people’s private information.
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