BRUSSELS, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission on Friday imposed fines totaling 120 million euros (139.8 million U.S. dollars) on Elon Musk's social media platform X for breaching transparency obligations in its first non-compliance decision under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
According to the Commission's press release, the penalty stems from three distinct breaches of the DSA, including the deceptive design of X's blue checkmark, lack of transparency in its advertising repository, and the platform's failure to provide researchers with access to public data.
The use of the "blue checkmark," which any user can obtain by paying, to designate "verified accounts" exposes users to scams, including impersonation fraud and other forms of manipulation, according to the Commission.
It added that X's advertisement repository fails to meet the DSA's transparency and accessibility requirements, and that the platform also falls short of its obligation to provide researchers with access to its public data.
This marks the first time the European Commission has issued a non-compliance ruling under the DSA. The DSA, which became effective a year ago, regulates online intermediaries and platforms to prevent illegal and harmful activities online and the spread of disinformation.
The decision follows formal proceedings opened in December 2023 to examine whether X breached the DSA in areas related to illegal content dissemination and measures to counter information manipulation, for which the investigation continues.
X is among the U.S. tech companies under heavy scrutiny from the European Commission. The European Commission on Thursday opened a formal antitrust investigation into Meta over a new policy that could limit artificial intelligence providers' access to WhatsApp. In September, the European Union fined tech giant Google 2.95 billion euros for antitrust violations in the online advertising sector and announced a new investigation into Google in November.
The United States has repeatedly criticized the European Union's regulatory measures as being targeted at American companies. Google, Amazon, and others have recently said they will file appeals for the latest EU regulatory decisions. (1 euro = 1.17 U.S. dollar) ■
