European Union regulators on Friday fined Elon Musk's social media platform X 120 million euros (USD 140 million) for breaches of the bloc's digital regulations that they said could leave users exposed to scams and manipulation.
The European Commission issued its decision following an investigation it opened two years ago into X under the 27-nation bloc's Digital Services Act, also known as the DSA.
It's the first time that the EU has issued a so-called non-compliance decision since rolling out the DSA. The sweeping rulebook requires platforms to take more responsibility for protecting European users and cleaning up harmful or illegal content and products on their sites, under threat of hefty fines.
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The Commission said it was punishing X, previously known as Twitter, because of three different breaches of the DSA's transparency requirements. The decision could rile President Donald Trump, whose administration has lashed out at digital regulations, complaining that Brussels was targeting US tech companies and vowing to retaliate.
EU regulators had already outlined their accusations in mid-2024 when they released preliminary findings of their investigation into X.
Regulators said X's blue checkmarks broke the rules because on “deceptive design practices” and could expose users to scams and manipulation.
Before Musk acquired X, when it was previously known as Twitter, the checkmarks mirrored verification badges common on social media and were largely reserved for celebrities, politicians and other influential accounts.
After he bought it in 2022, the site started issuing the badges to anyone who wanted to pay USD 8 per month for one.
The means X does not meaningfully verify who's behind the account, “making it difficult for users to judge the authenticity of accounts and content they engage with,” the Commission said in its announcement.
X also fell short of the transparency requirements for its ad database, regulators said.
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