Musk Accuses EU of Offering Secret Censorship Deal in Exchange for Dropping Fines

Brussels has gone after the platform over alleged “deceptive practices”

X (formerly Twitter) is facing scrutiny from the European Union for rejecting a request to secretly censor opinions on the platform, according to its owner, Elon Musk.

The EU announced on Friday that it considered X in violation of its Digital Services Act (DSA) and intended to impose substantial fines unless the company adjusted its practices.

“The European Commission offered X an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us,”  Musk responded. “The other platforms accepted that deal. X did not.”

“We look forward to a very public battle in court, so that the people of Europe can know the truth,” he added.

Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022, expressing dissatisfaction with widespread censorship on the social media platform. He has since reinstated most blocked accounts, including that of former President Donald Trump.

When Musk declared “the bird is freed,” Thierry Breton, the EU Commissioner for Internal Market, responded.

“In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules,” Breton stated, referencing the DSA.

On Friday, Breton justified the European Commission’s action against Musk by arguing that X violates the EU’s “transparency requirements” by restricting access to “researchers,” among other concerns.

“Back in the day, BlueChecks used to mean trustworthy sources of information. Now with X, our preliminary view is that they deceive users and infringe the DSA,” Breton said.

According to the Commission, allowing anyone to obtain verification through a subscription fee “negatively affects users’ ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with.”

The Commission also objected that X lacks “a searchable and reliable advertisement repository” that would “allow for the required supervision and research into emerging risks.” 

Of particular concern to the EU body was X’s refusal to allow “researchers” to scrape its public data or grant access to its application programming interface (API), as mandated by the DSA.

Mike Benz, a former Trump administration official, pointed this out, suggesting that the EU’s true motive is to “use the DSA to force X to restaff the censorship squad fired when Elon took over.” He further alleged that individuals presenting themselves as researchers are actually involved in “censorship activities & political operatives.”

Musk endorsed Benz’s analysis with a single word: “Exactly.”

X is now expected to provide a written response to the Commission. If the EU upholds Breton’s preliminary findings, X could face fines of “up to 6% of the total worldwide annual turnover” and be ordered to address its “breach” under “enhanced supervision,” the body stated.