X has entered a tense new chapter with the European Commission after receiving a €120 million fine under the EU’s Digital Services Act.
The penalty is the first issued under the new law, and regulators say X’s paid blue checkmark system is misleading because it can make users more vulnerable to impersonation and scams. The Commission also found that X’s ad transparency tools did not meet the standards required by the law.
The EU has given X sixty days to respond to the concerns about verification and ninety days to fix the issues with its advertising transparency. If the company fails to comply, more penalties could follow. Elon Musk reacted sharply to the fine on the platform, calling the decision “bullshit” and questioning the future of the European Union in another post.
Shortly after the ruling, the situation escalated when X restricted the European Commission’s advertising account. Although it appeared to be retaliation for the fine, X’s head of product, Nikita Bier, said the move had nothing to do with the penalty. Instead, he claimed the Commission used an old advertising account to take advantage of a flaw in X’s Ad Composer tool. According to Bier, the Commission posted a link that appeared like a video to boost its reach in a way that regular users cannot.
Bier said this misuse led X to shut down the Commission’s advertising account entirely. He also stated that the exploit had never been used in this way before and has now been fixed. In his comments, he suggested that the Commission expected to operate under different rules, while X aims to treat all users the same.
In response, a spokesperson for the European Commission said the organization always uses social platforms in good faith and simply relied on the tools provided by X. The spokesperson added that the Commission stopped running paid ads on X in October 2023 and still does not advertise there today.
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The back-and-forth highlights the growing conflict between X and European regulators as both sides stand firm on their positions.
