EU Fines Musk $140 Million for Violations of Online Safety Rules. Vance Calls It "Censorship."
The European Commission announced Friday that it was fining Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, for the equivalent of $140 million, saying his company X had breached Europe’s Digital Services Act. The act, which took effect around the same time Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, is a kind of digital rulebook meant to crack down on illegal or potentially harmful content.
Vice President JD Vance, before the fine was even finalized, slammed the commission, claiming that it was targeting US companies.
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A key aspect of the alleged violation is how Musk handles account verification on his social media site. Musk’s X “allows users to subscribe to a tier of the platform that grants them a badge that had previously signified the person had been vetted and approved by X’s moderators,” the Washington Post reports. The European Commission said this system makes it “difficult for users to judge the authenticity of accounts and content they engage with.”
“This deception,” the body continued, “exposes users to scams, including impersonation frauds, as well as other forms of manipulation by malicious actors.” The commission also said X didn’t provide a transparent advertising repository, as the Digital Services Act requires, and “fell short of an obligation to let researchers access and analyze its public data,” per The Post.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/12/eu-elon-musk-fine-vance-censorship/
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