Technology & Science
EU Issues First DSA Penalty: €120 Million Fine Against Musk’s X
On 5 Dec 2025 Brussels used its new Digital Services Act for the first time, fining X €120 million and giving the platform 60-90 days to overhaul its paid blue-check, ad archive, and researcher-data access.
Focusing Facts
- Formal decision dated 5 Dec 2025 levies €120 m (≈$140 m) on X’s Irish subsidiary.
- X must file a corrective plan for the blue-tick design within 60 days and for ad/data transparency within 90 days or face recurring fines.
- DSA allows penalties up to 6 % of global turnover; this charge is <1 % of X’s 2024 revenue, signalling calibrated enforcement.
Context
Brussels last flexed comparable regulatory muscle in 2004 when it fined Microsoft €497 m for bundling Windows Media Player—a move that foreshadowed the EU’s GDPR (2018) and now the DSA (2023) drive to police digital gatekeepers. The fine illustrates a century-long drift from laissez-faire communication networks (think the 1906 International Radiotelegraph Convention) toward thick, sovereignty-asserting rules over information flows. Whether one sees censorship or consumer protection, the decision hardens the EU’s claim to regulate foreign speech platforms extraterritorially, a trend that could, over a 100-year horizon, fragment the once-borderless internet into jurisdiction-bound zones much as 19th-century rail and telegraph networks were segmented by national standards.
Perspectives
Global mainstream outlets
BBC, NPR, UPI, CBC — Present the €120 million penalty as the EU’s first enforcement action under the Digital Services Act and stress that X misled users, lacked ad transparency and shut researchers out, framing the move as routine consumer-protection rather than censorship. By foregrounding EU officials’ quotes that the DSA is "nothing to do with censorship," these outlets tend to echo regulators’ framing and give less weight to free-speech objections voiced by U.S. politicians or Musk, implicitly endorsing Brussels’ regulatory agenda.
Right-leaning U.S. media
Breitbart, Reclaim The Net, Conservative News Today — Cast the fine as proof that Brussels is using the DSA as a censorship weapon, punishing Musk’s platform for permitting freer speech and attacking an American company. Their coverage amplifies Vice President Vance’s rhetoric and labels the DSA a "censorship law," framing the EU as hostile to free expression while giving scant attention to the specific misleading-verification and transparency findings cited by regulators.