The European Union (EU) fined Elon Musk‘s social media company X €120 million ($140 million) on Friday for breaching the bloc’s online content rules, marking the first sanction under its Digital Services Act (DSA), which was adopted in 2022.
Musk Says Fine Applied Personally
The Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO wrote on X that “The ‘EU’ imposed this crazy fine not just on @X, but also on me personally, which is even more insane!”
Musk added it would be “appropriate to apply our response not just to the EU, but also to the individuals who took this action.”
See Also: Elon Musk’s Starlink Eyes Cell Carrier Future With New Trademark Filing
US Officials Call For Sanctions
President Donald Trump's allies have raised support for Musk on X.
Sen. Ted Cruz called the fine “an attack on a great American job creator & it’s an attack on the free speech of every American.” Cruz said, “Trump should impose SANCTIONS until this travesty is reversed.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the fine is “an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments.”
“The days of censoring Americans online are over,” Rubio added.
Vice President JD Vance stated, “The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage.”
Vance had previously warned Europe against “authoritarian censorship” at the Paris AI Summit in February.
TikTok Avoids Penalty Amid EU Crackdown
Meanwhile, viral app TikTok has avoided a penalty by submitting binding commitments on advertising transparency.
The EU had issued preliminary findings in May regarding TikTok’s failure to maintain accessible advertisement repositories as required under the DSA.
TikTok and Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) have previously challenged the EU's supervisory fees in court, calling the calculations ‘absurd' and ‘discriminatory.'
The EU is also planning an antitrust investigation into Meta Platforms over its WhatsApp AI assistant rollout.
The EU previously fined Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) $3.5 billion and imposed nearly $800 million in penalties on Meta Platforms and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).
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