Summary
The EU plans to fine Elon Musk’s X over $1 billion for violating the Digital Services Act by failing to control disinformation and illicit content.
This would mark the first major penalty under the new law and could trigger a legal clash with Musk, who vowed to fight in court.
Regulators say the fine aims to deter other platforms. Tensions with the U.S. are rising, as X also faces a broader investigation.
“Plans to” has as much value as “slams” when it comes to real world impact. I’d love to be proven wrong and have the new title become “actually fines”, but I have my doubts.
With the current (digital) regulatory landscape (e.g. GDPR, DMA, DSA and the AI Act that is entering into force in multiple stages right now), the EU has proven to be quite resolute and decisive with their fines and measures. This is all partof their digital de ade stategy and more legislation is coming to tame these tech behemoths. Yes, it isn’t always fast or efficiënt, but the EU seems to be only world power that actually has the balls to do something.
This reminds me of EDPB Guidelines that have been published last year. In it, the EDPB had said that in extreme cases, AI models that have been trained on unlawfully obtained data such as personal data without a ground of proxessing etc., nationale authorites may compel the violating developer to delete the whole model. I do not see it happening soon or often, but it is a very good sign that the European authority mentions this as a possible action and outcome in an official document.
I’m optimistic that it will happen eventually. The EU generally is moving with stuff like this, even though it is slow as fuck. But well, let’s see, not promising anything…
There is a history of following through with huge fines https://www.theneweconomy.com/business/top-5-largest-fines-levied-on-tech-companies-by-the-european-commission
The difference is that the judicial branch needs to be thorough and build a case. Planning to is all they can do until they actually do.
If Shitter is found to do something illegal that should land them a fine that is what will happen.