Elon Musk was left fuming at the European Union as its executive branch fined his social media platform X $140 million after claiming it failed to comply with transparency rules.
‘The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries,’ Musk wrote Saturday morning on X.
He said this should happen ‘so that governments can better represent their people.’
Hours later, Musk asked: ‘How long before the EU is gone?’
Musk’s barrage of posts continued with him adding that Europe was ‘sleep–walking into oblivion.’
The European Union’s primary executive arm announced Thursday that it had fined X €120 million (approximately $140 million) over ‘breaching its transparency obligations’ under the EU’s Digital Services Act.
The compliance failures included the social media platform’s ‘deceptive design’ of its blue verification checkmark, a lack of opacity regarding its advertising and a lack of access to public data for researchers.
Musk lambasted the EU for hours on Saturday, reposting calls to ‘abolish’ the political union and to make Europe ‘free’ and ‘safe’ again.
The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX urged European people to ‘withdraw from the EU to regain their sovereignty.’
‘I mean it,’ he added. ‘Not kidding.’
Figures in the Trump administration immediately rallied against the fine the European Union imposed on the social media giant.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the days of censoring Americans online were ‘over.’
‘The European Commission’s $140 million fine isn’t just an attack on X,’ he wrote on the social media platform.
Rubio added: ‘It’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments.’
Ted Cruz, the Republican senator from Texas, said the fine on X was an ‘abomination.’
He called it an ‘attack on a great American job creator’ and on the ‘free speech of every American.’
Cruz posted: ‘Trump should impose SANCTIONS until this travesty is reversed.’
Vice President JD Vance had already commented on the fine earlier in the week.
‘Rumors swirling that the EU commission will fine X hundreds of millions of dollars for not engaging in censorship,’ he wrote on X. ‘The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage.’
X now has about three months to inform the union’s leadership of the specific measures it will take to end its various infringements.
The European Commission – which is the 27-nation coalition’s executive branch – said it was fining the online giant because of its ‘deceptive’ designs, lack of advertising ‘transparency’ and ‘insufficient’ data access for researchers.
The commission still has an investigation open ‘linked to the dissemination of illegal content and the effectiveness of the measures taken to combat information manipulation,’ according to its statement issued Thursday.
X was found to be misleading its users by selling “verified” checkmarks without ‘meaningfully verifying’ who actually runs the accounts.
This makes it harder for other users to judge authenticity and leaves them more vulnerable to scams and impersonation.
The social media platform’s ad repository also failed to meet transparency standards, per the commission.
The European Union’s commission said users and other researchers lacked ‘critical information’ related to ads on X, such as their content, topic and who paid for them.
Lastly, it discovered that X had prohibited researchers from accessing its public data, which creates ‘unnecessary barriers’ and ‘undermines research into several systemic risks’ in the EU.
X currently has about 102 million users per month in the EU, according to the platform’s Digital Services Act transparency report filed this October.
France has the most monthly users in the block at more than 18 million, while Spain follows closely behind at around 17 million.
Musk has encountered other problems abroad in the past – such as in Brazil.
Last year, the Brazilian Supreme Court shut down X nationwide after Musk refused to name a legal representative to the country.
Musk’s company had also refused to comply with a court order to close profiles accused of spreading fake news before the platform was banned in Brazil.
