Report from EuroNews
In Brief – The European Commission has imposed its first-ever fine on a large online platform for violating the Digital Services Act (DSA), hitting X with a 120 million euro penalty after a two-year investigation. Among the findings, regulators concluded that X’s change to its blue checkmark system from a free indicator of account authenticity to a service that could be bought for €7 per month, instituted in late 2022 soon after Elon Musk bought the platform, violated the DSA by potentially misleading users about account authenticity. The Commission also found that X failed to meet DSA transparency requirements for online advertising and advertisers, increasing risks of financial scams and undermining safeguards during elections by making it difficult to know who is behind ads. Finally, X did not provide researchers with required access to data such as views and likes, hindering third-party scrutiny of platform activity.
Context – This year, top US officials have repeatedly criticized EU “gatekeeper” regulations and fines, digital services taxes, and AI regulation, but charges of anti-conservative online viewpoint censorship in Europe are the most explosive bilateral tech issue for the Trump Administration. Influential conservative populists in the US, including many who are unfriendly with Big Tech, have built ideological alliances in Europe. The X investigation has been a flashpoint. The blue checkmark and advertising transparency issues are the less politically sensitive aspects of X’s DSA file. The Commission is also investigating X’s content moderation practices, including its Community Notes, whether it properly counters information manipulation, and how its algorithms boost some politically relevant content. There is no forgetting that former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton used his role as lead DSA enforcer to challenge Musk over hosting a Donald Trump interview in August 2024, an intervention that backfired, and many European officials have been highly critical of Musk’s populist political interventions in countries like Germany. The more ideologically fraught DSA content moderation and algorithm investigations remain open.