X’s Head of Product, Nikita Bier, hit back at the European Commission this weekend after the agency fined the social media platform €120 million (around $140 million).
This is the EC’s first fine under the European Union’s Digital Services Act. The commission labeled X’s blue checkmark system as “deceptive,” alleging that the paid verification feature leaves users open to impersonation and scams. They also criticized X’s advertising repository for not meeting the DSA’s standards for transparency and accessibility.
The commission stated that X needs to respond within 60 days regarding the blue checkmarks and within 90 days concerning the ad transparency issues, or the company may face further penalties.
Following the announcement of the fine, X’s owner, Elon Musk, referred to it as “bullshit” and tweeted, “How long before the EU is gone? AbolishTheEU.”
In response, X seems to have penalized the commission’s account on the platform—not, they say, as a reaction to the fine, but due to the commission’s use of X’s advertising system.
Citing the commission’s post about the fine, Bier accused the EC of logging into a “dormant ad account to exploit a flaw in our Ad Composer, allowing them to post a link that misleads users into thinking it’s a video and artificially boosts its reach.”
“As you may know, X believes everyone should have an equal voice on our platform,” Bier wrote. “However, it seems you believe the rules shouldn’t apply to your account.”
As a result, he announced that the commission’s ad account had been “terminated.” Bier later noted that this exploit “has never been abused like this” and has since been fixed.
A European Commission spokesperson told TechCrunch that the commission “always uses all social media platforms in good faith.”
“The Commission is simply using the tools that platforms themselves provide to our corporate accounts—this was the case with the ‘Post Composer’ tool in X,” the spokesperson explained. “We expect these tools to fully adhere to the platforms’ own terms and conditions, as well as our legislative framework.”
The spokesperson also mentioned that the commission suspended paid advertising on X in October 2023, and that suspension is still in effect.
This post has been updated with comments from a European Commission spokesperson.
