Elon Musk has called for the European Union to be abolished after his social media platform X was hit with a €120million (£105million) fine.
Officials handed Mr Musk’s company the punishment for transparency breaches, drawing the ire of the controversial billionaire.
Mr Musk wrote on X: “The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people.”
He also replied “bulls**t” under a European Commission post about the fine, reposting several messages criticising the decision.
The EU sanction against X followed a two-year-long investigation under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires online platforms to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content.
A similar investigation of TikTok led to charges in May that the company had breached a DSA requirement to publish an advertisement repository allowing researchers and users to detect scam advertisements.
The European Commission’s Tech Chief Henna Virkkunen said X’s fine was “proportionate and calculated” and was “based on the nature of the infringements, their gravity in terms of affected EU users and their duration.”
She told reporters: “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.”
Elon Musk has demanded for the EU to be abolished
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REUTERS
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr slammed the EU’s fine.
Mr Rubio wrote on social media: “The European Commission’s $140million fine isn’t just an attack on X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments. The days of censoring Americans online are over,
Mr Carr said on X that the sanction showed Europe “fining a successful US tech company for being a successful US tech company.”
Meta and TikTok were charged with breaching DSA transparency obligations in October while Chinese online marketplace Temu was accused of violating rules to prevent the sale of illegal products.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio slammed the decision to fine X
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REUTERSX has between 60 to 90 working days to come up with measures to comply with the DSA, with the time frame depending on the issue.
Ahead of the EU decision, Vice President JD Vance said: “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.”
TikTok, which pledged changes to its ad library to be more transparent, urged regulators to apply the law equally and consistently across all platforms.
Vice President Vance said the site was being fined ‘over garbage’
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REUTERS
However, after a two-year investigation, the European Commission ruled against X on three counts.
It found that the “blue tick” verification badge was deceptive, as users could simply pay for the privilege.
The ruling also found that there was a lack of transparency over advertisers on the site, falling foul of safeguards against scams and illegal promotions.
Finally, the European Commission ruled that researchers were denied access to what should be public data.
Elon Musk bought the social media platform X in 2022
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PAMr Musk added: “The ‘EU’ imposed this crazy fine not just on [X], but also on me personally, which is even more insane!
“Therefore, it would seem appropriate to apply our response not just to the EU, but also to the individuals who took this action against me.”
US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau suggested the ruling would encourage Washington to further disengage from its role in the Nato military alliance.
He said “[The] nations of Europe cannot look to the US for their own security at the same time they affirmatively undermine the security of the US itself through the (unelected, undemocratic, and unrepresentative) EU.”
