The European Commission notified the X social media platform, owned by Elon Musk, on Friday that it is violating the Digital Services Act (DSA) regarding issues related to dark patterns, advertising transparency, and researcher data access.
In its statement, the Commission indicated that if its initial findings are confirmed, it will issue a non-compliance decision stating that X is in breach of the DSA.
“Such a decision could entail fines of up to 6 per cent of the total worldwide annual turnover of the provider, and order the provider to take measures to address the breach,” said the Commission.
Additionally, the Commission has the authority to impose periodic penalty payments to ensure compliance from the X platform.
In a post on X, Musk claimed that the European Commission presented X with “an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us.”
He added, “The other platforms accepted that deal. X did not.”
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for a ‘Europe Fit for the Digital Age,’ stated that X is not meeting the DSA’s requirements in critical transparency aspects.
“It misleads users, fails to provide adequate ad repository and blocks access to data for researchers. It’s the first time we issue preliminary findings under the Digital Services Act,” she posted on X.
The DSA is fundamentally about transparency, and we are committed to ensuring that all platforms, including X, adhere to EU legislation, she concluded.
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