X terminates EU Commission’s account after €120M fine

Nikita Bier, X’s Head of Product, fired back at the European Union Commission this weekend after the body fined the social media company €120 million.

The European Union has issued its first fine under the Digital Services Act (DSA) against X, citing “deceptive” practices with its paid blue checkmark verification system.

The European Commission stated that this system makes users vulnerable to impersonation and scams. Additionally, the Commission found that X’s advertising repository failed to meet the DSA’s standards for transparency and accessibility. X is required to address the concerns regarding the blue checkmarks within 60 days and the ad transparency violations within 90 days, or it could incur further penalties.

After the fine was announced, X owner Elon Musk called it “bullshit” and posted, “How long before the EU is gone? AbolishTheEU”.

Following the announcement, X appears to have penalized the Commission’s account on the platform. The company claims this penalty is not related to the fine but is instead due to the Commission’s use of X’s advertising system.

In response to the Commission’s post announcing the fine, Bier accused the Commission of accessing a dormant ad account to exploit a flaw in their Ad Composer. This reportedly allowed the Commission to post a link that misled users into believing it was a video, thereby artificially increasing its reach.

Bier wrote, “As you may be aware, X believes everyone should have an equal voice on our platform. However, it seems you believe that the rules should not apply to your account.”

As a consequence, he stated the Commission’s ad account had been “terminated.” Bier later noted that the exploit “has never been abused like this” and the issue has since been resolved.

An EU spokesperson told TechCrunch, “The Commission is simply using the tools that platforms themselves are making available to our corporate accounts; this was the case with the ‘Post Composer’ tool in X.”

“⁠We expect these tools to be fully in line with the platforms’ own terms and conditions, as well as with our legislative framework.”

The spokesperson further mentioned that the Commission discontinued paid advertising on X in October 2023 and that the suspension remains in effect.