European Union regulators are getting ready main penalties towards Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, for breaking a landmark legislation to fight illicit content material and disinformation, stated 4 folks with data of the plans, a transfer that’s more likely to ratchet up tensions with the US by focusing on one in every of President Trump’s closest advisers.
The penalties are set to incorporate a advantageous and calls for for product adjustments, stated the folks, who declined to be recognized discussing an ongoing investigation. These are anticipated to be introduced this summer season and could be the primary issued underneath a brand new E.U. legislation supposed to drive social media firms to police their companies, they stated.
European authorities have been weighing how giant a advantageous to difficulty X as they take into account the dangers of additional antagonizing Mr. Trump amid wider trans-Atlantic disputes over commerce, tariffs and the struggle in Ukraine. The advantageous may surpass $1 billion, one individual stated, as regulators search to make an instance of X to discourage different firms from violating the legislation, the Digital Services Act.
E.U. officers stated their investigation into X was progressing independently from tariff negotiations after Mr. Trump introduced main new levies this week. The investigation began in 2023, and regulators final 12 months issued a preliminary ruling that X had violated the legislation.
The European Union and X may nonetheless attain a settlement if the corporate agrees to adjustments that fulfill regulators’ considerations, the officers stated.
X additionally faces a second E.U. investigation that’s broader and that would result in additional penalties. In that investigation, two folks stated, E.U. officers are constructing a case that X’s hands-off method to policing user-generated content material has made it a hub of unlawful hate speech, disinformation and different materials that’s considered as undercutting democracy throughout the 27-nation bloc.
