Key Points
- X terminated the European Commission’s ad account one day after being fined $140 million.
- X accused the Commission of using an exploit to boost the post announcing the fine artificially. The fine was the first ever under the EU’s new Digital Services Act.
- The EU penalized X for issues with its verification system and a lack of transparency in advertising.
- X owner Elon Musk publicly dismissed the European Commission’s claims as “bullshit.”
The battle between X and European regulators has intensified dramatically. Just one day after the European Commission (EC) hit the social media platform with a hefty $140 million fine, X terminated the Commission’s advertising account.
X’s head of product, Nikita Bier, publicly accused the European Commission of foul play. He claimed the EC used a technical exploit to artificially boost the reach of its post announcing the fine against X.
According to Bier, the Commission used a trick in the ad system to post “a link that deceives users into thinking it’s a video” to get more views. He added that the bug has since been patched, but X still revoked the EC’s ability to run or track ads on the platform as a consequence.
This move by X is a direct response to the first-ever fine issued under the new Digital Services Act. The European Commission penalized X for several major issues. Regulators claimed the platform has a misleading system for its verified accounts, fails to be transparent about its advertising, and doesn’t provide researchers with effective access to data.
While X has banned the EC’s ad account, the company is still on the hook for the fine and must provide a plan to fix the problems regulators identified. The public spat has been anything but quiet.
When the European Commission first announced the fine, X’s owner, Elon Musk, personally replied with a single word: “bullshit.”
