The EU Penalizes X $140 Million for Violating Content Rules
In Focus
- The EU fined X for breaching transparency rules under the Digital Services Act
- EU regulators claim X misleads users with its blue tick system for paid users
- Regulators also cited lack of clarity on who runs advertising on X
The European Commission has imposed a $140 million fine on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform, X, for breaching transparency rules provided under the Digital Services Act (DSA). According to Reuters, the X EU content rules fine is the first that the bloc has imposed under the legislation.
EU’s Probe into X DSA Violations
According to the EU, the decision to fine X came after a two-year probe into how the social media platform operates. Following the probe, Brussels identified multiple online content violations by X. Regulators alleged that X uses the white and blue tick system for paid users to mislead users that accounts are verified and authentic.
“Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU,” European Commission Vice President Henna Virkkunen said, as stated by Reuters.
As part of the X Digital Services Act breach, the Commission raised concerns over the lack of clarity on who runs advertising on X. Regulars in the EU continue to scrutinize X over the spread of illegal content and the measures the platform takes to deal with information manipulation. Last year, the EU targeted X with investigations over allegations of using unconsented user data to train its AI model Grok.
The DSA requires platforms to protect European users and to remove harmful, illegal content, or products from their sites. The content moderation law imposes hefty fines on digital platforms for violating its provisions.
How the EU Determined X’s DSA Fine
Under the DSA, the EU can impose penalties equivalent to 6% of a company’s global annual turnover. However, the Commission did not consider X’s annual turnover in determining the penalty.
Instead, regulators in the EU split the penalty into three parts based on X content moderation failures. For verification of blue and white ticks, the Commission imposed a €45 million fine. X was fined €40 million for failing to facilitate data access for researchers and €35 million for the lack of advertising transparency.
“We are not here to impose the highest fines. We are here to make sure that our digital legislation is enforced,” Virkkunen added, as stated by Digital Journal.
Earlier this year, Meta and TikTok won a tech fees challenge in the EU. The two platforms had challenged the formula used to calculate a supervisory fee imposed on them by the European Commission.
Is the EU Targeting American Companies?
In recent months, the EU has launched multiple probes targeting American tech companies. Earlier this week, regulators in the region launched an antitrust probe on Meta over the integration of AI on the messaging platform WhatsApp.
The latest fine on X has been viewed as a test to the EU’s resolve to regulate American tech firms. U.S. Vice President JD Vance had warned against using censorship to attack American companies before the EU announced the penalty. But the EU insisted that it was penalizing the social media platform for failing to comply with EU transparency rules.
