As Twitchy reported on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance, who dressed down Europe for its erosion of free speech at the Munich Security Conference, said rumors were swirling that the European Commission was preparing to fine X hundreds of millions of dollars for not engaging in censorship.
The rumors turned out to be true, and the European Commission on Friday fined X €120 million for non-compliance with transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act.
Today, we fined X for non-compliance with transparency obligations under the DSA.
— European Commission (@EU_Commission) December 5, 2025
We're holding X accountable for:
🔹Deceptive design of its ‘blue checkmark’
🔹Lack of transparency of its advertising repository
🔹Failure to provide access to public data for researchers
↓
Remember how butthurt everyone was when Elon Musk told them a blue checkmark would cost $8 a month? Now, the European Commission is butthurt over the blue checkmark:
X's use of the ‘blue checkmark' for ‘verified accounts' deceives users. This violates the DSA obligation for online platforms to prohibit deceptive design practices on their services. On X, anyone can pay to obtain the ‘verified' status without the company meaningfully verifying who is behind the account, making it difficult for users to judge the authenticity of accounts and content they engage with. This deception exposes users to scams, including impersonation frauds, as well as other forms of manipulation by malicious actors. While the DSA does not mandate user verification, it clearly prohibits online platforms from falsely claiming that users have been verified, when no such verification took place.
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If you want to see something really scary from the European Commission, check out President Ursula von der Leyen talking about the importance of "pre-bunking" information before it reaches the public. She unfortunately compares it to inoculating against a virus.
For Ursula von der Leyen, free speech is like a virus and censorship is its vaccine. Does anyone still have doubts about why they sanctioned X? pic.twitter.com/9sAGsiBfPI
— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) December 6, 2025
People are mad about this but you have to remember that fining US tech companies is Europe’s sole source of income. https://t.co/lJVw9pvD9q
— Jarvis (@jarvis_best) December 6, 2025
EU is the HOA Karen of the world.
— Allen (@CTAhey4) December 6, 2025
They need that public data for research sir
— badbeard the irate (@5YearsHence) December 6, 2025
Protection racket.
— streetwiseprof (@streetwiseprof) December 6, 2025
Thanks for reminding me to tell Europe to suck our collective member.
— Richard 🇺🇸 🌪️ (@RenegadeMeso) December 6, 2025
And to think we were informed just today that Americans don't quite understand just how sick and tired of their bulls**t Europeans actually are. Look in a mirror, ami.
You want money, X has some and isn't a European company, so you try to take it. (Someone has to pay those massively inflated Commission salaries.) It's that simple.
— Carrie Lukas (@carrielukas) December 6, 2025
From the man himself:
Bullshit
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 5, 2025
Sir, you have the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever. pic.twitter.com/8mVfyRjxw3
— Aggie The Barbabe (@AggieTheBarkeep) December 6, 2025
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Editor’s Note: Here at Twitchy, we’ve been dealing with real government suppression of free speech for YEARS. Despite the threats and consequences, we refuse to go silent and remain committed to delivering the truth.
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