Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla and Spacex, and owner of the X
Ox “deceives users”, “no hate speech” and “does not comply with the required transparency”. The European Union is studying the dimension of the fine to apply to former Twitter for violation of the provisions of digital markets. Elon Musk’s company calls the punishment “political censorship.”
European Union regulators are preparing major penalties against X, including a fine that could exceed $ 1 billion, according to news published yesterday by.
The European Commission determined last year that the social network of Elon Musk violated the approved in 2022.
Regulators are now determining the sanctions to be applied, says NYT, which cites four people with knowledge of the commission’s plans. “Sanctions should include a fine and the requirement of changes to the product.”
The sanction should be applied this summer and will be the first Under the new EU legislation, which Apple was the first company.
“European authorities have been ponder the amount of the fine to be applied, considering the Risks of further antagonizing President Trump In the midst of broader transatlantic disputes on trade, tariffs and the war in Ukraine, ”notes NYT.
“The fine could exceed a thousand million dollars” (about 912 million euros), as regulators “seek to make X an exampleto determine other companies to violate the Digital Services Law ”.
In a published Friday in the profile of “Global Government Affairs” the company of Elon Musk criticized European regulators.
“If reports that the European Commission is considering execution actions against X are exact, this is a act of unprecedented political censorship and an attack on freedom of expression, ”said X.
“Ax did everything that was within his reach To comply with the EU digital services law and we will use all options at our disposal to defend our business, keep our users safe and protect freedom of expression in Europe, ”adds the publication.
Other Musk Companies on the Cake
The digital services law allows fines of up to 6% of the total annual turnover of a company worldwide.
Last year, EU regulators that could calculate the fines also considering the Recipes from other musk companiesincluding Spacex – a method that, according to NYT, is still being considered:
Unlike Google, Meta, Apple and Amazon, which are publicly negotiated, the X is exclusive property of Elon Musk.
According to NYT, it is possible that the EU and X will reach “an agreement if the company agrees with changes that satisfy regulators’ concerns.”
But there is also a SEPARATED EU INVESTIGATIONin which regulators “are building a case in which the non -interventional approach of X in relation to the policing the contents generated by the uses made it a center of illegal discoursesO, misinformation and other material that is seen as undermining democracy throughout the 27 nations block. ”
This second investigation may lead to additional sanctions.
The EU announced in December 2023 a formal investigation to the X to assess whether the company “could have violated the digital service law in areas related to risk management, content moderation, obscure patternsadvertising transparency and data access to researchers ”.
Ax “conceives and operates its interface for the ‘verified accounts’ with the ‘blue check brand’ way that does not correspond to practice industry and deceives users“The EU regulator said at the time.
The fact that, as long as it pays, Anyone can register To obtain this “verified” status, it negatively affects the ability of users to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the contents they interact with.
“There is evidence that Malicious agents motivated They abuse the ‘verified account’ to deceive users, ”consider the EU regulators.
The EU also states that “a x does not comply with the required transparency in terms of advertising ”and“ does not provide the access to your public datas to investigators, in accordance with the conditions established by law ”.
