Overview
- EU officials found three breaches: deceptive paid blue check verification, inadequate advertising transparency, and blocked access to public data for researchers.
- The penalty is split into €45 million for verification design, €35 million for ad repository failures, and €40 million for restricting researcher access.
- X has 60 working days to present fixes for the blue check issue and 90 working days to address the ad and data-access violations, with periodic penalties possible for delays.
- The Commission said the decision targets transparency obligations rather than censorship, while broader probes into illegal content and information manipulation continue.
- Senior U.S. officials, including Vice President JD Vance and FCC Chair Brendan Carr, criticized the move, as the Commission the same day accepted TikTok’s binding ad-transparency commitments without a fine.