According to The Verge, the European Union has fined Elon Musk’s X a total of €120 million, which is roughly $140 million. This penalty, announced today, is specifically for violations of the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA). The regulators cited the “deceptive design” of X’s blue checkmark system as a key part of the violation. This action follows a formal investigation into X that the EU launched back in December 2023. Critically, this marks the very first time a company has been fined under the landmark DSA law, which aims to curb illegal and harmful content online.
First Fine Of Many
So, the DSA has drawn first blood. And it’s a significant sum, though probably a rounding error for a company of X’s scale. The real story here isn’t the money—it’s the precedent. The EU has been talking a big game with the DSA and its sibling, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), for years. Now they’ve shown they’re willing to actually pull the trigger and levy fines. This wasn’t some minor slap on the wrist for a paperwork error; it was a direct hit on a core user-facing feature that Musk himself championed. It sends a clear message to every other major platform: your design choices that mislead users are now a regulatory target.
Musk’s Probable Response
Now, what happens next? I think we can all guess. Elon Musk will almost certainly rage-post about it, call the EU unelected bureaucrats, and vow to fight it in court. He might even frame it as a attack on free speech, though that’s a harder sell when the fine is about a paid feature being confused for identity verification. Here’s the thing, though: legal posturing aside, this creates a massive compliance headache. The EU isn’t going away. This fine is just the opening argument in a broader investigation that’s also looking at X’s content moderation and transparency around crises like the Israel-Hamas war. Basically, the platform’s entire operational model in Europe is under the microscope.
A New Era For Platform Rules
Look, this is just the beginning. The DSA has a whole tier of so-called “Very Large Online Platforms” (VLOPs) in its sights—think Meta, Google, TikTok, and others. By making X the first example, the EU is signaling that no one, not even the most vocal and litigious billionaire owner, is above these new rules. Other platforms will be scrambling to audit their own features for any “deceptive design,” whether it’s dark patterns in subscription flows or ambiguous privacy settings. The era of moving fast and breaking things, at least in Europe, is officially over. The regulators have their template, and they’re not afraid to use it. The question is, who’s next?
