The European Union regulators are preparing important penalties against Elon Musk X’s social media platform to break a law on the point of reference to combat illicit content and disinformation, they said four people with knowledge of the plans, a move that is likely to increase tensions with the United States by targeting one of the closest consultants of President Trump.
The sanctions are destined to include a fine and requests for changes to the product, they said that people, who refused to be identified by discussing an ongoing investigation. These are expected to be announced this summer and will be the first issued pursuant to a new EU law destined to force companies on social media to supervise their services, they said.
The European authorities have evaluated how great is a fine to issue x as they consider the risks of further antagonizing Mr. Trump among larger trans-Atlantic disputes on trade, rates and war in Ukraine. The fine could exceed $ 1 billion, a person said, since regulators try to give an example of X to dissuade other companies from the violation of the law, called Digital Services Act.
EU officials declared that their X -ray investigations were progressing regardless of the tariff negotiations after Trump announced important new withdrawals this week. The investigation began in 2023 and last year the regulators issued a preliminary sentence that X had violated the law.
The EU and X could still reach an agreement if the company accepted changes that meet the concerns of the regulators, the officials said.
X must also face a second wider EU investigation and which could lead to further penalties. In this investigation, two people said, EU officials are building a case that the X-off approach of X to the control of the content generated by users has made it an illegal center of hatred, disinformation and other material which is considered underestimation of democracy in the block of 27 nations.
“We have always applied and we will continue to enforce our laws fairly and without discrimination against all the companies operating in the EU, in full compliance with global rules”, A spokesman for the European Commission, the EU executive branch, declared in a declaration, refusing to comment specifically on X.
X refused to comment.
Brussels officials expect Musk, who criticized European policies as a form of censorship, to fight any regulation. Last July, after the preliminary EU results were released, Musk said he did not have impatience to contest any penalty in “a very public battle in court”.
This could create a legal clash with wide -ranging branches. If Mr. Musk refuses to respect the EU orders to change his service, he can involve a defender on how to enforce X.
The X investigation was carefully considered the first great attempt to enforce the Digital Services Act, which requires companies to better monitor their platforms and to provide adequate transparency on how their services work. The law has become a flash point in a transatlantic debate on freedom of speech, with vice -president JD Vance in February comparing EU regulation to digital censorship.
After Mr. Trump was elected, European regulators slowed down X investigations to evaluate potential repercussions, said a person. More recently, while commercial tensions with the United States intensified, the authorities have decided to press in advance.
Last year, European regulators concluded that X was violating the law by refusing to provide data to external researchers, making it difficult to measure the way the disinformation and other harmful materials spread to the service. The authorities also believe that X has not been able to provide adequate transparency to advertisers or verify the authenticity of users who pay to have an “verified” account, making the platform more vulnerable to foreign abuses and interference.
The EU and X are in question for months during the investigation. After the preliminary judgment against X last year, the company responded with hundreds of dispute points that the regulators worked to refute, said two officials.
EU officials declared that the exact penalty against X would not have been decided until it is closer to a final announcement. Pursuant to the Digital Services Act, companies can be fined up to 6 % of global revenues, although regulators rarely pursue the greatest possible penalty.
Unlike Google, Meta, Apple and Amazon, who are exchanged on the stock exchange, X is exclusive owned by Mr. Musk. EU regulators are taking into consideration the use of a piece of the law that allows them to calculate a fine based on the revenue that also includes other Musk companies controls privately, such as its Spacex rocket. This increases the potential penalty to well over $ 1 billion, said a person.
X is not the only technological company in the crossed hair of the EU. Regulators will be expected to announce penalties against Meta and Apple for violating a law of 2022, the law on digital markets, intended to increase competition in technology. Meta is also under investigation to potentially violate the law on digital services, inadequately protecting minors.
The investigations show that the EU plans to continue the aggressive regulation of the Giants of American technology. For more than a decade, the EU has studied or fined the giants of US technology including Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta for anti -concurrent commercial practices, privacy of laxist data and weak supervision of the contents generated by users.
The regulation of European technology may have played a role in the size of the rates that Trump announced this week against the EU in February, the White House has published a reminder that warns that the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act were examined for having unjustly targeted the American companies.