‘The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage,’ Vice President JD Vance said ahead of the decision.
The European Commission fined billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s X social media company 120 million euros ($140 million) on Dec. 5 following a two-year investigation under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The commission stated that X breached several transparency obligations, including the “deceptive design of its ‘blue checkmark,’ the lack of transparency of its advertising repository, and the failure to provide access to public data for researchers.”
In the bloc’s latest challenge against U.S. tech giants, the European Commission said the platform’s verified badge was converted into a paid feature without adequate identity checks. Regulators argued this misled users into believing accounts were authentic, exposing them to impersonation, manipulation, and fraud.
X’s advertising library failed to meet the DSA’s accessibility and detail standards, omitting key information that hindered efforts to track coordinated disinformation, election interference, and illicit activities, according to the commission.
In addition, the tech regulators claimed that X installed barriers preventing eligible researchers from accessing engagement metrics, such as impressions, likes, and shares.
The social network’s terms of service prohibit eligible researchers from independently accessing public data and impose restrictive processes that create unnecessary barriers, the commission said. These limits undermine research into systemic risks in the European Union, such as disinformation and election interference.
“With the DSA’s first non-compliance decision, we are holding X responsible for undermining users’ rights and evading accountability,” Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security, and democracy, said in a statement.
X will now have 60 days to inform the European Commission of how it will address what the commission called “deceptive” blue checkmarks and 90 days to submit a plan to resolve issues regarding ads and public data.
“Failure to comply with the non-compliance decision may lead to periodic penalty payments,” the commission said in a statement.
Prior to the European Commission’s announcement on X, U.S. Vice President JD Vance weighed in, encouraging the bloc to support free speech.
“Rumors swirling that the EU commission will fine X hundreds of millions of dollars for not engaging in censorship,” Vance said on X. “The EU should be supporting free speech, not attacking American companies over garbage.”
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.
— JD Vance (@JDVance) December 4, 2025
Meanwhile, the fine on X comes a day after the bloc said it had opened an investigation into tech giant Meta for potentially breaching EU competition rules regarding artificial intelligence (AI) providers’ access to WhatsApp.
Mark Zuckerberg’s company announced in October that it would restrict AI providers from using a tool that allows businesses to contact customers through WhatsApp when AI is the primary service offered.
“We must ensure European citizens and businesses can benefit fully of this technological revolution and act to prevent dominant digital incumbents from abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors,” the bloc’s commissioner for competition, Teresa Ribera, said in a Dec. 4 statement.
By Andrew Moran
