The EU prepares important sanctions against the X of Elon Musk

The regulators of the European Union are preparing significant sanctions against the social networks of Elon Musk x to violate a historical law to combat the illicit content and misinformation, said four people with knowledge of the plans, a measure that will probably increase tensions with the United States by aiming one of the closest advisors of President Trump.

The sanctions include a fine and the demands for changes in the product, said the people who refused to be identified discussing an ongoing investigation. They are expected to be announced this summer and will be the first issued under a new EU law destined to force social media companies to monitor their services, they said.

The European authorities have been weighing how big it is a fine for problem x, since they consider the risks of antagonizing Trump even more in the midst of broader transatlantic disputes over trade, tariffs and war in Ukraine. The fine could exceed $ 1 billion, a person said, since regulators seek to give an example of x to deter other companies to violate the law, called Digital Services Law.

EU officials said his research on x was progressing independently of tariff negotiations after Trump announced new important levies this week. The investigation began In 2023 and the regulators last year issued a preliminary decision that x had violated the law.

The EU and x could still reach an agreement if the company accepts changes that satisfy regulators' concerns, officials said.

x also faces a second EU investigation that is broader and could lead to new sanctions. In that investigation, two people said, EU officials are building a case that the x injection approach to monitor the content generated by users has made it a center of illegal hate speech, misinformation and other material that is considered to underline democracy in the 27 -nations block.

“We have always enforced and we will continue to enforce our laws in a fair way and without discrimination against all the companies that operate in the EU, in full compliance with the global rules,” A spokesman for the European Commission, the EU executive branch, said in a statement, who refused to specifically comment on x.

x declined to comment.

Officials in Brussels expect Mr. Musk, who has criticized European policies as a form of censorship, fight against any regulation. Last July, after the preliminary findings of the EU, Mr. Musk were published <a target="_blank" class="css-yywogo" href="https://x.com/ThierryBreton/status/1811811489889517697?lang=en-GB” title=”” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>saying I hoped to dispute any penalty in “a very public battle in court.”

That could establish a legal confrontation with high range ramifications. If Mr. Musk refuses to comply with EU orders to change his service, it can result in a confrontation on how to get x to meet.

Research x has been closely observed as the first important attempt to enforce the Digital Services Law, which requires companies to better monitor their platforms and provide adequate transparency on how their services work. The law has become a point of inflammation in a transatlantic debate about freedom of expression, with vice president JD Vance in February comparing EU regulation with digital censorship.

After Trump was elected, European regulators slowed the x investigation to evaluate the possible consequences, a person said. More recently, as commercial tensions intensified with the United States, the authorities decided to move on.

Last year, European regulators concluded That x was violating the law by refusing to provide data to external researchers, which makes it difficult to measure how misinformation and other harmful material spread in the service. The authorities also believe that x has not been able to provide adequate transparency over advertisers, or verify the authenticity of users who pay to have a “verified” account, which makes the platform more vulnerable to abuse and foreign interference.

The EU and x have been in discussions for months during the investigation. After the preliminary sentence against x last year, the company responded with hundreds of dispute points that regulators have been working to refute, two officials said.

EU officials said that the exact penalty against x would not be decided until closer to a final announcement. According to the Digital Services Law, companies can receive a fine of up to 6 percent of world income, although regulators rarely pursue the largest penalty.

Unlike Google, Meta, Apple and amazon, which are negotiated publicly, x is owned only by Mr. Musk. EU regulators are considering using a piece of law that allows them to calculate a fine based on income that also includes other companies that Mr. Musk controls privately, as its manufacturer of Spacex rockets. That increases the potential sanction to more than $ 1 billion, a person said.

x is not the only technology company on EU hairs. Regulators are expected to announce sanctions against Meta and Apple for violating a 2022 law, the Digital Markets Law, aimed at promoting technology competition. Goal is also under investigation for potentially violating the Digital Services Law by improperly protecting minors.

Research shows that the EU plans to continue the aggressive regulation of US technological giants. For more than a decade, the EU has investigated or fined the American technological giants, including amazon, Apple, Google and goal for anti -competitive commercial practices, lax data privacy and weak supervision of the user generated content.

European technological regulation may have played a role in the size of the rates that Mr. Trump announced this week against the EU in February, the White House Posted a note Warning that the Digital Markets Law and the Digital Services Law were being examined to unfairly attack US companies.