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In a dramatic turn of events, Elon Musk has effectively turned the proverbial tables on the European Commission (EC) by lobbing grave allegations in response to the EU's executive arm opening a pathway for imposing punitive measures against the X social media platform earlier today.
As a refresher, the European Commissioner Thierry Breton commenced a broad-based investigation into X's potential breach of the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) rules in December 2023.
The EU's executive arm was particularly interested in evaluating X's efforts to counter hate speech, misinformation, and glorification of terrorism. As part of its investigation, the Commission tried to gauge the efficacy of X's much-touted Community Notes feature that uses crowd-sourced fact-checks to combat misinformation. It also probed the effectiveness of the platform's user-facing tools designed to flag illegal and sensitive content. Finally, the European Commission wanted to look into X's blue checkmarks that now accompany a paid subscription and whether these marks were indicative of a deceptive design.
Well, earlier today, the European Commission publicized the results of its preliminary investigation that found that X uses "dark patterns" to deceive its users. It also raised concerns around advertising transparency and data access for researchers.
The Commission believes that there is evidence of "motivated malicious actors" abusing their verified status - indicated by X's blue checkmarks - to deceive users. The European Commission further believes X did not maintain "a searchable and reliable advertisement repository," as mandated under the DSA. The platform also reportedly blocked researchers from accessing its publicly available data in contravention of EU rules.
If the Commission's preliminary views are ultimately sustained, the platform may be fined up to 6 percent of its global annual sales. The Commission can also mandate specific changes to X's operational procedures.
Elon Musk's Serious Charges Against The European Commission
The European Commission offered 𝕏 an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us.
The other platforms accepted that deal.
𝕏 did not. https://t.co/4lKsaRsYoA
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2024
This brings us to the crux of the matter. In response to the European Commission's preliminary findings against X, Elon Musk has accused the EU's executive arm of pursuing an "illegal secret deal" that would have allowed X to avoid punitive fines in exchange for adopting stealth censorship.
According to Musk, other platforms accepted this deal while X did not, indicating that it was his social media platform's intransigence that prompted today's action by the European Commission.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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