EU offered ‘illegal secret deal,’ Musk claims as X found to breach DSA

Elon Musk has hit out at the European Commission, claiming it tried to make an “illegal secret deal” with X over compliance with new EU rules to prevent online misinformation.

It comes as the Commission announced on Friday that Musk’s social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, had breached elements of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

“The European Commission offered X an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us,” the billionaire tech mogul posted on X.

“The other platforms accepted that deal. X did not”.

In a separate exchange on the platform, Musk threatened he would further his case in court over the Commission’s charges.

The DSA, a set of sweeping regulations that holds platforms — including Facebook, YouTube, and others — responsible for protecting European users and removing harmful content and misinformation, entered into effect in February this year.

The charges against X are the first to be issued under the new law, with infringements carrying hefty fines equivalent to 6 per cent of the platform’s global revenue.

Musk did not divulge any further details about the terms of the reported “secret deal”.

Euronews Next has requested comment from X to clarify the terms of the deal but received its generic press office email response: “Busy now, please check back later”.

Musk’s harsh words were in response to an earlier post from Margrethe Vestager, the outgoing Executive Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Competition.

“In our view, X doesn’t comply with the DSA in key transparency areas,” she wrote. 

“It misleads users, fails to provide adequate ad repository, and blocks access to data for researchers. It’s the first time we issue preliminary findings under the Digital Services Act”.

The Commission started a probe into X in December, and released its preliminary findings on Tuesday.

According to the Commission, X’s blue checkmark – which was used to verify accounts on the platform – was deceptive and had been abused by malicious actors to mislead other users.

As a result of the findings, Musk’s platform could now face a multi-million-euro fine.

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‘Be our guest’

In response to a separate post by European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton, Musk said: “We look forward to a very public battle in court, so that the people of Europe can know the truth”.

Breton replied by saying, “Be our guest, Elon Musk”.

Firing back on X, the commissioner denied the existence of a secret deal and said no such bargain had been made with any other platforms.

“The DSA provides X (and any large platform) with the possibility to offer commitments to settle a case,” Breton added.

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“To be extra clear: it’s YOUR team who asked the Commission to explain the process for settlement and to clarify our concerns”.

“We did it in line with established regulatory procedures. Up to you to decide whether to offer commitments or not. That is how rule of law procedures work. See you (in court or not)”.

Euronews Next has reached out to the Commission for official comment.