EU Fines X 120 Million Euros for DSA Violations

European Union regulators fined Elon Musk's social media platform X 120 million euros on December 5, 2025, for violating transparency rules under the bloc's Digital Services Act, marking the first enforcement action against the company since the law took effect in 2023.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, announced the penalty following a two-year investigation launched in late 2023. The probe focused on X's compliance with the DSA, a comprehensive regulation that mandates online platforms to enhance user protections, combat illegal and harmful content, and maintain transparency in operations. Violations can result in fines of up to 6 percent of a company's global annual revenue. For X, whose 2024 revenue was estimated between 2.5 billion and 2.7 billion euros, the imposed fine breaks down into three components: 45 million euros for the misleading design of its paid blue checkmark verification system, 35 million euros for shortcomings in its advertising repository, and 40 million euros for restricting researchers' access to public data.

Commission officials stated that the blue checkmarks, introduced after Musk acquired the platform in 2022 and rebranded it from...