Musk and Trump have criticized the European Union after the European Commission ordered X to pay a $140 million fine.
What you should know
Billionaire Elon Musk has called for the European Union to be dissolved, while US President Donald Trump has said that Europe is heading in the wrong direction. Both Musk and Trump have criticized Europe after the European Commission, under the EU, ordered Twitter to pay a $140 million fine.
Trump and Musk, who publicly criticized each other after disagreeing over the tax cuts and spending bill 'One Big Beautiful Bill', have united in their criticism of Europe. The European Commission has ordered the company to pay a fine, saying that Musk's social media platform X is misleading users about official accounts by giving them a blue checkmark after paying someone.
The Commission has found that X violated three different provisions under the 'Digital Services Act' applicable in 27 countries of the European Union. The Commission has made the decision to impose a fine public, citing the ambiguity in the process related to X's blue checkmark, or verified account. The Commission claims that a deceptive method is used when giving the blue checkmark and that it can deceive and confuse users.
Commenting on the Commission's post regarding the fine, Musk called it 'absurd'. He and Trump administration officials have said Europe has enacted the Digital Services Act to discourage American technology. Musk wrote, “The European Union should be dismantled and countries’ sovereignty restored so that governments can truly represent their citizens.”
Musk has banned European Commission ads from posting on X. The commission’s account was closed after the commission took advantage of a flaw in X’s own system to promote its posts, according to Nikita Beer, a senior X employee.
Trump has called the commission’s move to fine X “very bad.” He says Europe needs to tread carefully. Trump told reporters that Musk had not asked him for help on the issue. “I’ll talk more about it later,” he said, “but it’s not easy for Europe to take such a step.” How do they do it?’
