"Elon Musk’s X fined €120m by EU in first clash under new digital laws"

Ruling likely to put European Commission on collision course with billionaire, and possibly Donald Trump

Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has been fined €120m (£105m) after it was found in breach of new EU digital laws, in a ruling likely to put the European Commission on a collision course with the US billionaire and potentially Donald Trump.

The breaches, under consideration for two years, included what the EU said was a “deceptive” blue tick verification badge given to users and the lack of transparency of the platform’s advertising.

The commission rules require tech companies to provide a public list of advertisers to ensure the company’s structures guard against illegal scams, fake advertisements and coordinated campaigns in the context of political elections.

In a third breach, the EU also concluded that X had failed to provide the required access to public data available to researchers, who typically keep tabs on contentious issues such as political content. [...]

The commission said on Friday it had found X in breach of transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA), in the first ruling against the company since the laws regulating the content of social media and large tech platforms came into force in 2023. [...]

Musk – who is on a path to become the world’s first trillionaire – has 90 days to come up with an “action plan” to respond to the fine but ultimately he is also free to appeal against any EU ruling, as others, such as Apple, have done in the past, taking their case to the European court of justice. [...]

X has been approached for comment. The EU said the company had been informed of the decision.