Overview
- The European Commission found three transparency breaches at X: a deceptive paid blue-check system, inadequate ad transparency, and restricted access to public data for researchers.
- The penalty totals €120 million split into €45 million for verification, €35 million for ad transparency, and €40 million for researcher access failures.
- X has 60 working days to address the verification issue and 90 working days to present an action plan on ad transparency and data access or face further penalties.
- EU officials said the decision is about transparency and user protection, not censorship, while broader probes into illegal content and information manipulation at X remain open.
- U.S. officials including JD Vance, Marco Rubio and FCC chair Brendan Carr criticized the move; the Commission stressed its sovereign right to enforce the DSA, and it accepted separate transparency commitments from TikTok without issuing a fine.