The European Union regulators are preparing significant sanctions against the Elon Musk social media platform to violate a landmark law to combat illegal content and misinformation, they said that four people with knowledge of the plans, one that is possible of President Trump.
Sanctions are going to include fine and product changes requirements said that people who refused to identify by discussing a continuing survey. These are expected to be announced this summer and will be the first to be issued under a new EU law that intends to force social media companies to police their services, they said.
European authorities weigh how big the fine is to issue X as they consider the risks to further compete with Mr Trump amid broader transatlantic disputes about trade, invoices and the war in Ukraine. The fine could exceed $ 1 billion, one person said, as regulators seek to make an example of X to prevent other companies from breach of law, called digital services law.
EU officials said their research on X was moving forward independently of tariff negotiations, after Mr Trump announced significant new contributions this week. The investigation began in 2023 and regulators last year issued a preliminary decision that X had violated the law.
The EU and X could still reach a settlement if the company agrees with changes that satisfy regulatory concerns, officials said.
X also faces a second EU survey that is wider and could lead to further sanctions. In this investigation, two people said, EU officials build a hypothesis that the approach of X’s hands to policing the content created by users has made an illegal hate, misinformation and other material that is considered to undermine the democracy.
“We have always imposed and will continue to impose our laws fair and without discrimination against all EU companies, in full compliance with global rules,” A spokesman for the European Commission, an EU executive industry, said in a statement, which refused to comment specifically X.
X refused to comment.
Employees in Brussels are awaiting by Mr Musk, who has criticized European policies as a form of censorship to combat any regulation. Last July, following the liberation of EU preliminary findings, Mr Musk said he was looking forward to questioning any penalty in “a very public battle in court”.
This could create a legal confrontation with wide consequences. If Mr Musk refuses to comply with EU commands to change his service, it can lead to a stance on how to get the X to comply.
The X survey is closely monitored as the first major effort to enforce the Digital Services Act, which requires companies to improve their platforms and provide adequate transparency on how their services operate. The law has become a point of ignition in a transatlantic debate on freedom of speech, with Vice President JD Vance in February likening EU regulations to digital censorship.
After Mr Trump was elected, the European regulators have slowed the X survey to evaluate the possible fall, one person said. More recently, as commercial tensions with the United States intensified, authorities decided to promote.
Last year, European regulators concluded that X violated the law, refusing to provide data to external researchers, making it difficult to measure the way in which misinformation and other harmful material spreads to the service. Authorities also believe that X has failed to provide adequate transparency of advertisers or verify the authenticity of users who pay to have a “verified” account, making the platform more vulnerable to abuse and foreign intervention.
The EU and X have been in discussions for months during research. Following the preliminary crisis against X last year, the company responded with hundreds of disagreement points that regulators are working to overturn, two officials said.
EU officials said the exact sentence against X would not be decided until the final announcement was approached. According to the Digital Services Act, companies can be fined up to 6 % of world revenue, although regulatory authorities rarely seek the highest penalty.
Unlike Google, Meta, Apple and Amazon, which are publicly trading, X belongs exclusively to Mr Musk. EU regulators are thinking of using a part of the law that allows them to calculate a fine based on revenue that also includes other companies Mr Musk privately controls, such as the SpaceX missile manufacturer. This increases the possible sentence to over $ 1 billion, one person said.
X is not the only technology company in the EU cross -hairs. Regulatory authorities are expected to announce sanctions against META and Apple for violating the 2022 law, the Digital Market Law aimed at enhancing competition in technology. META is also under investigation into a possible violation of the Digital Services Act with inadequate protection of minors.
Research shows that the EU plans to continue the aggressive regulation of American technological giants. For more than a decade, the EU has been investigating or imposed a fine on US technology giants, such as Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta for anti -tantamine business practices, relaxed privacy and weak supervision of the user -produced content.
European technological regulation may have played a role in the size of the invoices that Mr Trump announced this week against the EU in February, the White House published a warning note that the Digital Market Law and the Law on Digital Services were examined.
