The European Commission Commissioner announced the results of a preliminary investigation into X (formerly Twitter), finding that X committed three violations of the Digital Services Act and that X may be fined 6% of its total annual turnover. In response, X chairman Elon Musk responded that this was because X rejected the EU’s secret agreement on censorship.

What is the Digital Services Act?

The European Parliament passed the Digital Services Act (DSA) on January 20, 2022, aiming to regulate online service providers and provide users with a safer online space .

The law provides clear guidance on how platforms handle illegal content, algorithms, and advertising, and imposes strict penalties on platforms that violate the regulations. Especially for "Very Large Online Platforms" (VLOPs) with more than 45 million monthly active users, if they violate their obligations intentionally or negligently, the maximum fine can be 6% of the total turnover of the previous fiscal year. , or continuous daily penalties may be imposed up to 5% of the average daily turnover of the previous fiscal year.

The European Commission found X to have committed three non-compliances

The European Commission announced the preliminary results of its investigation into X (formerly Twitter), finding the company to have committed the following three non-compliances:

  • X designed and operated the "Verified Account" interface with a "blue check" in a manner that was inconsistent with industry practices and deceived users. Since anyone can subscribe to obtain this "verified" status, there is evidence that malicious actors are abusing "verified accounts" to deceive users.

  • The

  • X failed to provide researchers with access to its public materials in accordance with the conditions set out in the DSA. In particular, X prohibits qualified researchers from independently accessing its public data, such as through scraping methods specified in its terms of service. Additionally, X's process for granting eligible researchers access to its application programming interface (API) appears to prevent researchers from undertaking research projects or subject them to paying disproportionately high fees.

Musk: X rejected EU secret deal on censorship

In response, Elon Musk, Chairman of X, wrote:

The European Commission has proposed an illegal secret deal─if we quietly censor speech without telling anyone, they won’t fine 𝕏. Other platforms accepted the deal, but 𝕏 did not.

Musk also said he looks forward to a public battle in court so that the European people can know the truth. Regarding the “researchers” mentioned in the third point, he also agreed with Mike Benz’s point of view:

They are the ones who scrutinize activities and political operations. They plan to use the DSA to force X to restaff the review team that was fired after Musk took office.

This article The EU determined that X violated the "Digital Services Act", Musk: We refuse to introduce censorship first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.