Winners & losers: Elon Musk and X are no strangers to public outbursts. Their latest involves the entire European Union, which Musk has called on to be abolished after it fined his company 120 million euros, (around $140 million) for violating the Digital Services Act (DSA). X has responded to the fine by shutting down the EU's ad account.
The EU penalized X on Friday following a two-year investigation into whether it had violated the DSA, which was introduced in 2022. It marks the first time a company has been fined for violating this law.
The DSA makes online platforms more accountable for illegal content, transparency, user safety, and how they use algorithms. It forces big platforms to moderate harmful content faster, explain recommendation systems, reduce risks like misinformation, and give users more control over what they see.
In X's case, the breaches are related to the "deceptive" design of its blue checkmark, the lack of transparency of its advertising repository, and the failure to provide access to public data for researchers.
In his typical style when dealing with something he doesn't like, Musk replied to the EU's post about the fine with the word "Bullshit."
Bullshit
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 5, 2025
Not content with that remark, Musk followed up a day later with a message that was longer than his single expletive. "The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people," he wrote. The world's richest person has also retweeted a lot of anti-EU posts over the last few days.
Following this flurry of anger, Nikita Bier, X's head of product, accused the Commission of using an exploit to artificially boost the reach of its post announcing the fine.
Bier wrote that the "irony" of the EU's announcement is that the agency logged into its dormant ad account, which had not been used since 2021, to take advantage of an exploit in the Ad Composer. The commission allegedly used this to post a link that deceives users into thinking it's a video, thereby artificially increasing the reach. Bier later wrote that the exploit had never been abused this way and was now patched.
The irony of your announcement:
– Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) December 6, 2025
You logged into your dormant ad account to take advantage of an exploit in our Ad Composer – to post a link that deceives users into thinking it's a video and to artificially increase its reach.
As you may be aware, X believes everyone should… https://t.co/ziuhUOimOT
In addition to calling out the commission for its alleged behavior, X has revoked the European Commission's ad account, meaning it can no longer buy and track ads on the platform – though it may not care much if it hadn't used the service for four years.
Others have spoken out against the fine. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it an "attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments," in a post.
"Today's excessive €120M fine is the result of EU regulatory overreach targeting American innovation," said Andrew Puzder, the US ambassador to the EU.
"The Trump Administration has been clear: we oppose censorship and will challenge burdensome regulations that target US companies abroad. We expect the EU to engage in fair, open, & reciprocal trade – & nothing less."
X now has 60 days to inform the Commission of how it plans to address the blue checkmark issue. It also has 90 days to submit a plan to resolve the issues with its ads repository and access to its public data for researchers.
Musk goes full Musk after X gets hit with a €120 million EU fine
