Elon Musk accuses EU of covert deal as X faces digital services act violations

Elon Musk has taken to X, accusing the European Commission of attempting to broker an "illegal secret deal" with his social media platform regarding compliance with new EU regulations aimed at curbing online misinformation.

It comes as the Commission announced on Friday that Musk’s social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, had breached elements of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), Caliber.Az reports referring to foreign media.

The DSA, implemented in February this year, imposes stringent obligations on platforms like Facebook and YouTube to protect European users from harmful content. This marks the first instance under the new law that charges have been levelled against X, with potential fines amounting to 6% of the platform’s global revenue.

Musk hinted at pursuing legal action against the Commission over these allegations. He did not disclose further details about the purported secret agreement.

The dispute arose following earlier comments of Margrethe Vestager, the outgoing Executive Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Competition, where she criticized X for non-compliance with DSA transparency requirements, misleading users, inadequate advertising disclosure, and restricted data access for researchers.

The Commission initiated an investigation into X in December, culminating in preliminary findings released this week, which also highlighted the misuse of X's blue checkmark verification system by malicious actors to deceive users.

As a consequence of these findings, Musk’s platform faces the prospect of significant financial penalties.