The European Union has fined Elon Musk’s social platform X a massive €120 million, roughly $140 million, for breaking the rules under the Digital Services Act.
This is the first time the EU has issued a penalty under the new law, and the decision primarily focuses on X’s misleading blue checkmark system, as well as issues related to ad transparency, researcher access, and harmful content.
The EU’s investigation began back in December 2023, and by mid-2024, regulators had already warned that X was not meeting several required responsibilities. One of the biggest concerns was the paid blue checkmark feature, which allowed anyone to buy a verification badge. Officials stated that this design tricked users into believing certain accounts were trustworthy or officially verified, even though they were not. While the EU does not require platforms to verify their users, it does forbid them from giving a false impression of verification.
Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s top tech official, said the bloc would not tolerate any practices that mislead people or limit transparency. She added that the Digital Services Act is meant to protect users, support researchers, and improve trust in the online world, and that X must be held responsible when it fails to follow the law.
The maximum fine for violating the DSA can be up to 6 percent of a company’s global revenue. However, because X is a private company, it is not clear what the highest possible penalty could have been. Musk originally bought X in 2022 for $44 billion, and in 2025, his AI company X AI acquired it again for $33 billion. For now, X has 60 working days to explain how it will stop using blue checkmarks in a deceptive way and 90 days to show how it plans to fix the other issues. If it misses these deadlines, the EU may issue more fines.
Reports suggest that EU officials debated the size of the penalty for months. Some wanted to send a strong message to other tech companies, while others worried about how the decision might affect the bloc’s tense relationship with the United States, especially with President Donald Trump involved in ongoing trade disputes. Musk and other American tech leaders have urged the president to push back against what they view as unfair treatment of US companies in Europe.
The investigation into X is still not finished. EU regulators are continuing to look into how the platform handles harmful and illegal content, something that has been a major concern ever since Musk took over. European officials say disinformation has increased in the past few years, and the platform has faced criticism for amplifying far-right figures and for Musk’s own political posts. Earlier this year, EU lawmakers promised to move quickly with the investigation, especially after Musk publicly supported Germany’s far-right party leader and made a controversial gesture during his speech at Trump’s inauguration.
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