SHARE The European Union has issued its first major penalty under the Digital Services Act, placing a fine of €120 million on X. The figure converts to roughly AUD 205 million. The ruling was announced on Friday and immediately triggered a predictable response from Elon Musk, who replied on X with a single word: “Bullshit”. The situation intensified the following day when Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, accused the European Commission of manipulating the platform to draw extra attention to its own announcement. Bier stated that the Commission had reactivated an advertising format that is meant to be restricted to paid promotions, even though it had not used its advertising account since 2021. He argued that the message included a link styled to appear like a video, which he believes was intended to increase engagement. The post did in fact contain an actual video. Bier then confirmed that X had disabled the Commission’s advertising account in response. The move appears more symbolic than impactful. If the Commission had abandoned advertising activity years ago, restricting its account provides little strategic advantage for X. The company remains responsible for the substantial fine and must still respond to regulatory demands. Under the terms of the Digital Services Act, X has sixty days to outline how it intends to correct what regulators have labelled misleading uses of verified checkmarks. Failure to comply could result in further penalties. Enquiries have been sent to the European Commission for additional information. An update will be provided if a response is received. About Post Author