Billionaire Elon Musk has sharply criticized the European Union after it fined his social network X 120 million euros for violating transparency rules. The Tesla boss has said that his reaction will be directed at the senior officials who made the decision to punish.
“The EU has imposed this insane fine not only on X, but also on me personally, which is even more absurd. Therefore, it seems reasonable that our reaction should not only be towards the EU, but also towards the individuals who took this action against me,” he wrote on x.
Musk’s reaction comes after the European Commission fined Platform X 120 million euros on Friday for violating transparency obligations that apply to very large online platforms, under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU’s main regulation on content moderation. According to the Commission, the blue verification checkmark function became deceptive after it was transformed from a user verification service to a paid service. It was also said that advertising on X is not sufficiently transparent and that the platform does not allow researchers access to public data.
“The ‘Woke Stasi’ EU commissioners will soon fully understand the meaning of the ‘Streisand effect,'” Musk wrote. The term “Streisand effect” refers to situations where trying to hide something brings even more attention to it. Musk did not clarify how he will specifically respond to the fine and which individuals he intends to target.