Platform X (formerly Twitter) has found itself in open conflict with the European Union. After the European Commission fined the company 120 million euros for violating the Digital Services Act, X disabled its advertising account and accused officials of abusing the platform’s tools.
Platform X (formerly Twitter) has found itself in open conflict with the European Union. After the European Commission fined the company 120 million euros for violating the Digital Services Act, X disabled its advertising account and accused officials of abusing the platform’s tools.
According to TechCrunch, this is the first fine from the European Commission under the Digital Services Act. The regulator said that the paid blue tick in the X is misleading to users and facilitates fraud and account spoofing. Separately, Brussels accused the platform of not providing enough transparency in its ad library about political ads and sponsors.
The European Commission requires X to explain within 60 days how it plans to change the verification system and within 90 days to eliminate problems with advertising transparency. If this does not happen, the companies face new financial sanctions and other restrictions on the EU market.
Elon Musk responded in his own style. He publicly called the fine «dog shit» and questioned the future of the European Union itself, calling for «dismantling the EU.» Amid this backlash, X’s head of product Nikita Beer said that the European Commission had allegedly exploited a bug in the advertising interface to boost the reach of a post about the fine. According to him, officials went into a long-dormant advertising account and published a link in a format that looked like a video to users. X then disabled the ability to place ads from this account and announced that the gap in the tool had already been closed.
The European Commission responded that they use social media tools «in good faith» and expect platforms to monitor the compliance of their products with their own rules and European legislation. The Commission representative separately recalled that back in October 2023, Brussels stopped buying advertising from X, so the blocking of the advertising account is rather symbolic.
The conflict shows how DSA is gradually transforming from a «paper» regulation into a real tool for putting pressure on large platforms. For X, which after Musk’s arrival made verification paid and relaxed some of its moderation rules, this may be just the first in a series of painful clashes with European regulators.
Earlier, dev.ua reported that Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radosław Sikorski commented on Elon Musk’s statements about the need to disband the European Union, after the EU imposed a multi-million fine on his social network X (Twitter).
