The European Union hit Elon Musk’s X with a 120-million-euro ($140-million) fine Friday for breaking its digital rules, sparking an angry reaction from Washington.
The high-profile probe into the social media platform was seen as a test of the EU’s resolve to police Big Tech. Even before the penalty was made public, US Vice President JD Vance warned against “attacking” US firms through “censorship”.
Hours after Brussels announced the fine, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined the attack.
“The European Commission’s $140 million fine isn’t just an attack on X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments,” Rubio posted on X.
“The days of censoring Americans online are over.”
This was the first fine imposed by the European Commission under its Digital Services Act (DSA) on content.
X was guilty of breaching the DSA’s transparency obligation, said a Commission statement.
The breaches include the deceptive design of its “blue checkmark” for supposedly verified accounts, and its failure to provide access to public data for researchers, it added.
“This decision is about the transparency of X” and “nothing to do with censorship,” the bloc’s technology commissioner Henna Virkkunen told reporters — pushing back against Washington’s line of attack.
Posting on X on Thursday, Vance had told the EU it “should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage” — to which Musk replied “Much appreciated”.
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