Overview
- EU investigators confirmed three DSA breaches at X: a purchasable checkmark that misleads users, insufficient advertising transparency, and restricted access to data for researchers.
- The €120 million penalty is apportioned as €45 million for the verification badge design, €40 million for researcher access failures, and €35 million for ad archive shortcomings.
- X has been given short compliance windows, reported between 60 and 90 working days, to redesign badges, improve its ad database, and enable data access for vetted researchers.
- U.S. leaders including Vice President J.D. Vance and President Donald Trump criticized the decision, while EU officials emphasized that the case concerns transparency rather than censorship.
- The Commission closed a separate TikTok advertising-transparency case after binding commitments, as additional X probes continue and a legal appeal by the company remains possible.