Musk, Trump admin shred $140M fine lodged by EU against X social media
FOX Business’ Stuart Varney analyzes Europe’s strict speech rules under the Digital Services Act, the arrests tied to online posts and his warning against allowing European standards to dictate what Americans can say on social media.
Elon Musk and Trump administration officials delivered blistering criticism of the European Union after its executive branch issued a $140 million fine against Musk’s social media platform, X.
“The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people,” Musk wrote on X on Saturday. “AbolishTheEU.”
The European Commission said Friday it was fining X for “non-compliance with transparency obligations” under the Digital Services Act (DSA), adding that it was specifically “holding X accountable” for what the EU deems “deceptive” design of X’s “blue checkmark,” a “lack of transparency of its advertising repository,” and “failure to provide access to public data for researchers.”
The commission posted the $140 million fine announcement on X.
Elon Musk, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have slammed the EU’s $140 million fine against X. (Nathan Howard/Reuters; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
On Friday, in response to an X post from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, calling the fine an “abomination” and saying that President Donald Trump should impose sanctions “until this travesty is reversed,” Musk replied, “The ‘EU’ imposed this crazy fine not just on X, but also on me personally, which is even more insane!
“Therefore, it would seem appropriate to apply our response not just to the EU, but also to the individuals who took this action against me,” Musk wrote, calling the fine in another post “bulls—.” He also said, “I love Europe, but not the bureaucratic monster that is the EU.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that the fine “isn’t just an attack on X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments.”
Before the fine was announced, Vice President JD Vance said, “The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage.”
The EU adopted the DSA in 2022 to regulate online platforms such as social networks and to “prevent illegal and harmful activities online and the spread of disinformation,” but the law has since faced opposition from the Trump administration amid its free speech promotion on the global stage.
Thomas Regnier, spokesperson for Tech Sovereignty, Defense, Space and Research at the commission, argued at a briefing on Friday that the fine was not related to content moderation.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick is among the Trump administration officials speaking out against the fine against X. (Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images /…
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