U.S.–EU Tech Policy

The European Commission fined Elon Musk’s X about $140 million (120 million euros) for breaching the EU’s Digital Services Act, finding the platform used a deceptive paid blue‑check design, maintained a poorly functioning ads repository, and failed to provide effective researcher data access — the Commission called this the first non‑compliance decision under the DSA. EC spokesperson Thomas Regnier announced the penalty and contrasted X’s stance with TikTok’s concessions while denying any targeting of U.S. firms; Musk says he will legally challenge the sanctions, and U.S. politicians including Sen. Marco Rubio and JD Vance have criticized the fine as an attack or censorship — the DSA allows fines up to 6% of worldwide annual revenue and X serves over 100 million EU users.