Elon Musk’s X found in breach of EU rules

The European Commission on Friday, 12 July informed Elon Musk-owned X social media platform that it is in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers.

In a statement, the Commission said if its preliminary are confirmed, the Commission would adopt a non-compliance decision finding that X is in breach of the DSA.

“Such a decision could entail fines of up to 6 per cent of the total worldwide annual turnover of the provider, and order the provider to take measures to address the breach,” said the Commission.

The Commission can also impose periodic penalty payments to compel the X platform to comply. In a post on X, the tech billionaire alleged that the European Commission offered X “an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us”.

“The other platforms accepted that deal. X did not,” alleged Musk. According to Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for a ‘Europe Fit for the Digital Age,’ X doesn’t comply with the DSA in key transparency areas.

“It misleads users, fails to provide adequate ad repository and blocks access to data for researchers. It’s the first time we issue preliminary findings under the Digital Services Act,” she posted on X.

The DSA has transparency at its very core, and we are determined to ensure that all platforms, including X, comply with EU legislation, she added