EU Imposes €120 Million Fine on X over Openness Concerns
Brussels – The European Commission has levied a €120 million fine against X, formerly known as Twitter, citing failures to comply with the Digital Services Act (DSA) regarding transparency of its advertising practices. The penalty, announced Thursday, marks the first major financial sanction under the landmark EU legislation designed to regulate large online platforms.
The substantial fine stems from concerns that X did not provide sufficient information about its ad repository,a key component of the DSA requiring platforms to disclose who is paying for advertisements and the targeting criteria used.This lack of transparency hinders researchers and users attempting to understand political advertising and potential manipulation efforts. The decision escalates tensions between the EU and X, owned by Elon Musk, and signals a more assertive approach by European regulators toward enforcing the DSA’s requirements.
EU tech czar Henna virkkunen emphasized the decision is not related to censorship. “The DSA is having nothing to do with censorship,” Virkkunen told reporters. “This decision is about the transparency of X.” The Commission’s investigation, launched in February, revealed deficiencies in X’s systems for tracking and reporting advertising data, despite repeated requests for compliance.
The fine represents approximately 0.25% of X’s global annual revenue in 2022. The European Commission has warned that continued non-compliance could result in further penalties, including daily fines of up to 5% of X’s average daily global revenue. The DSA applies to all very large online platforms (VLOPs) and very large online search engines (VLOSEs) with over 45 million active users in the EU, and the Commission has indicated further enforcement actions against other major tech companies are forthcoming.
