The regulatory body of the European Union announced on Friday that Elon Musk’s social media platform has breached regulations concerning advertising transparency, data access for researchers, and user information.
The European Commission’s decision is the result of an investigation to determine whether X — formerly known as Twitter before Musk acquired it in October 2022 — violated the Digital Services Act (DSA). This law aims to ensure major digital platforms and their owners protect user privacy and prevent the spread of harmful content.
The commission highlighted X’s failure to comply with transparency rules regarding advertising, noting that it lacks a searchable advertisement database. Unlike X, platforms such as Meta’s Facebook maintain an ad library where users can search for ads run within the E.U. over the past year and ads on political or social issues over the past seven years.
Additionally, Musk’s platform has been criticized for not providing researchers access to public data. The commission referenced Musk’s decision to place X’s application programming interface — a tool that allows researchers to access around 10 million posts each month — behind a costly paywall, halting over 100 research projects.
The commission also criticized X’s verification system, which misleads users into believing some accounts are legitimate. Following Musk’s acquisition of X, the company replaced the blue checkmarks identifying notable users with subscription-based checkmarks available to anyone. “There is evidence of motivated malicious actors abusing the ‘verified account’ to deceive users,” the commission reported.
In response to the decision, Musk issued a series of remarks. He questioned the authenticity of the E.U. commissioner for the internal market, Thierry Breton, asking, “How do we know you’re real?” and labeled the DSA as “misinformation.” Musk also claimed that the European Commission offered X an illegal secret deal to avoid fines if they censored speech quietly, a claim he alleges other platforms accepted.
Breton refuted Musk’s accusations, stating, “There has never been — and will never be — any ‘secret deal’. With anyone.” He explained that the DSA allows any large platform the option to offer commitments to settle a case and noted that X had requested guidance on the commission’s concerns and the settlement process.
The commission’s findings are preliminary, and X still has the opportunity to respond. If the commission confirms its preliminary findings, X could face fines up to 6% of its global yearly revenue and be ordered to address the E.U.’s concerns.
In recent months, the commission has taken on several tech giants, including Apple, Microsoft, and Meta, accusing them of violating the Digital Markets Act.