Famagusta Gazette The European Commission on Friday fined Elon Musk’s social media platform X 120 million euros ($139.8 million) for breaching transparency rules, marking its first non‑compliance decision under the Digital Services Act. The Commission said the penalty stems from three violations: the deceptive design of X’s paid blue checkmark, insufficient transparency in its advertising repository, and failure to provide researchers access to public data. Officials warned the checkmark system exposes users to scams and impersonation fraud. The DSA, which took effect a year ago, regulates online platforms to curb illegal activity and disinformation. The ruling follows proceedings launched in December 2023 into X’s handling of content and information manipulation, which remain under investigation. X is among several U.S. tech firms facing heightened EU scrutiny. On Thursday, regulators opened an antitrust probe into Meta over WhatsApp access policies. In September, Google was fined 2.95 billion euros for advertising violations, with another investigation announced in November. U.S. officials have criticized the EU’s regulatory push as unfairly targeting American companies. Google, Amazon and others have said they will appeal recent decisions.