On Friday (December 5) local time, the European Union imposed a fine of 120 million euros (approximately US$140 million) on Company X, a social media platform owned by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk. The move is expected to heighten tensions between the EU and the United States over digital regulation. Although this fine is mild compared with the EU's previous penalties on technology companies, the United States has repeatedly pressured the EU to relax its technology regulatory rules during trade negotiations.

The legal basis for the EU's punishment of Platform X is the Digital Services Act (DSA). This is the first time the EU has issued a fine based on this act.

Under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU can fine online platforms up to 6% of their global annual revenue if they fail to address illegal content and disinformation, or fail to comply with transparency regulations.

As a "very large online platform" designated by the EU, X was accused of violating transparency obligations.

The European Commission said that the design of X's blue certification mark was "misleading" and that this problem has arisen since the certification function was changed from user authentication to a paid function.

The agency also said X's ad library lacked transparency and did not provide researchers with access to public data as required by law.

The European Commission launched an investigation into X in October 2023. In July last year, the European Commission initially determined that X violated the DSA. At the time, media reports stated that EU regulators would consider including the income of other companies under Musk’s control when determining the fine against X.

While X's global revenue is estimated to be only a few billion dollars, other Musk companies have much higher revenues.

Musk owns many star companies, including the highest-status electric vehicle giant Tesla and space exploration technology company SpaceX, as well as brain-computer interface company Neuralink, artificial intelligence company xAI and underground tunnel company The Boring Company.

The Trump administration in the United States has repeatedly criticized the EU's digital regulation bill.

In August this year, U.S. President Trump warned all countries that implement digital regulations and digital taxes, saying that unless these countries revoke discriminatory measures against U.S. companies, additional high tariffs will be imposed on their exports to the United States and restrictions will be placed on the export of high-tech products such as chips to these countries.

On Thursday, U.S. Vice President Vance posted on

Musk responded to Vance's post, saying: "Thank you very much."