Two years, give or take around 10 days. That is how long it took the European Commission to finalise and close its investigation into X, Elon Musk’s social network, resulting in a fine of €120 million for multiple breaches of the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Announced publicly on Friday 5 December by the Executive Vice-President for Technological Sovereignty, Henna Virkkunen, before the European ministers responsible for the digital sector (see EUROPE 13767/2), this penalty is the very first imposed by the EU on a platform since the introduction of the DSA. Beyond its symbolic aspect, this decision is a test of the Commission’s ability to enforce its new rules, particularly in the face of US attacks, and to prove that the DSA is effective, despite criticism of its slowness.
Proven violations. Three breaches were identified: the deceptive design of X’s ‘blue checkmark’, the symbol attached to a username that are supposed to attest to the authenticity of an account; the lack of transparency of the platform’s ads repository, which should make it possible to analyse the content, sponsor and topic of ads; and the lack of cooperation with researchers in accessing public data.
The ‘blue tick’, created in 2009 to authenticate accounts, has, since Elon Musk’s takeover of the network, become a simple paid service, with no identity verification. This “deception exposes users to scams (...) as well as other forms of manipulation”, according to the Commission.
The institution also considers that X’s ads repository is deficient and “lacks critical information, such as the content and topic of the advertisement, as well as the legal entity paying for it”.
Of the €120 million fine imposed on X, €45 million relates to the ‘blue checkmarks’, €40 million to researchers’ access to data and €35 million to the lack of advertising transparency. This may seem a small price to pay, given X’s annual revenues of almost €3 billion. Especially as the DSA allows the Commission to impose penalties of up to 6% of the latter amount.
“This is more than just a question of money. This penalty is proportional to the seriousness of the breaches detected”, highlighted a senior European official, who played down the criticism of the investigation’s delays (see EUROPE 13632/2).
Washington annoyed, while the EU27 approve. The political stakes of this decision go far beyond compliance by the major platforms: this first penalty comes at a time when the EU and Washington are at loggerheads over regulation of the US digital giants (see EUROPE 12758/2). By imposing a penalty on X, responsible for a multitude of breaches of European legislation, the Commission appears to be reaffirming its credibility in regulating the most visible platforms.
Twenty-four hours before the announcement, the US Vice-President, J.D. Vance, was already accusing the Union of “attacking US companies over trivialities”. After the penalty was imposed, Elon Musk shared a post by Brendan Carr, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, who denounced a Europe “obsessed with fines”, used “to subsidise a continent held back by its own stifling regulations”.
“This fine has nothing to do with censorship”, the European Commission insisted in return. “When companies are ready to take action and make a commitment, we are ready to get involved. If they don’t, we’ll take action.”
At the same time, on Friday 5 December, European ministers responsible for the digital sector were meeting (see other news), and their agenda included a session to exchange views on the implementation of the DSA.
Provided with information by the Commissioner, EU27 ministers were largely satisfied and stressed the importance of seeing the initial procedures move forward. According to Executive Vice-President, Henna Virkkunen, the results of forthcoming surveys should now be made available more quickly.
This decision only closes the first part of the investigation opened by the Commission in December 2023. The most sensitive allegations – X is still suspected of manipulating its algorithms to shape public debate in Europe and of spreading false information (see EUROPE 13560/4) – have not yet been the subject of any findings. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)