Europe’s far-right firebrands are rushing to hitch their fortunes to Washington’s new crusade against Brussels. Senior U.S. government officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have launched a raft of criticism against what they call EU “censorship” and an “attack” of U.S. tech companies following a €120 million fine from the European Commission on social media platform X. The fine is for breaching EU transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act, the bloc’s content moderation rule book. “The Commission’s attack on X says it all,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on X on Saturday. “When the Brusselian overlords cannot win the debate, they reach for the fines. Europe needs free speech, not unelected bureaucrats deciding what we can read or say,” he said. “Hats off to Elon Musk for holding the line,” Orbán added. Tech mogul Musk said his response to the penalty would target the EU officials who imposed it.  “The European Commission appreciates censorship & chat control of its citizens. They want to silence critical voices by restricting freedom of speech,” echoed far-right Alternative for Germany leader Alice Weidel. Three right-wing to far-right parties in the EU are pushing to stop and backtrack the integration process of European countries — the European Conservatives and Reformists, the Patriots for Europe, and the Europe of Sovereign Nations. Together they hold 191 out of 720 seats in the European Parliament. The parties’ lawmakers are calling for a range of proposals — from shifting competences from the European to the national level, to dismantling the EU altogether. They defend the primacy of national interests over common European cooperation. Since Donald Trump’s reelection, they have portrayed themselves as the key transatlantic link, mirroring the U.S. president’s political campaigning in Europe, such as pushing for a “Make Europe Great Again” movement. The fresh U.S. criticism of EU institutions has come in handy to amplify their political agendas. “Patriots for Europe will fight to dismantle this censorship regime,” the party said on X. The ECR group — political home to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — issued a statement questioning the enforcement of the DSA following the U.S. criticism. “A digital law that lacks legal certainty risks becoming an instrument of political discretion,” ECR co-chairman Nicola Procaccini said on Saturday after the U.S. backlash. The group supported the DSA when it passed through the Parliament, having said in the past the law would “protect freedom of expression, increase trust in online services and contribute to an open digital economy in Europe.”

LISBON — Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission should continue to enforce its digital rules with an iron fist despite the outcry from U.S. officials and big tech moguls, co-chair of the Greens in the European Parliament Bas Eickhout told POLITICO. As Green politicians from across Europe gather in the Portuguese capital for their annual congress, U.S. top officials are blasting the EU for imposing a penalty on social media platform X for breaching its transparency obligations under the EU’s Digital Services Act, the bloc’s content moderation rule book. “They should just implement the law, which means they need to be tougher,” Eickhout told POLITICO on the sidelines of the event. He argued that the fine of €120 million is “nothing” for billionaire Elon Musk and that the EU executive should go further. The Commission needs to “make clear that we should be proud of our policies … we are the only ones fighting American Big Tech,” he said, adding that tech companies are “killing freedom of speech in Europe.” The Greens have in the past denounced Meta and X over their content moderation policies, arguing these platforms amplify “disinformation” and “extremism” and interfere in European electoral processes. Meta and X did not reply to a request for comment by the time of publication. Meta has “introduced changes to our content reporting options, appeals process and data access tools since the DSA came into force and are confident that these solutions match what is required under the law in the EU,” a Meta spokesperson said at the end of October. Tech mogul Musk said his response to the penalty would target the EU officials who imposed it. 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,” and accused the move of “censorship.” “It’s not good when our former allies in Washington are now working hand in glove with Big Tech,” blasted European Green Party chair Ciarán Cuffe at the opening of the congress in Lisbon. Eickhout, whose party GreenLeft-Labor alliance is in negotiations to enter government in the Netherlands, said “we should pick on this battle and stand strong.” The Commission’s decision to fine X under the EU’s Digital Services Act is over transparency concerns. The Commission said the design of X’s blue checkmark is “deceptive,” after it was changed from user verification into a paid feature. The EU’s executive also said X’s advertising library lacks transparency and that it fails to provide access to public data for researchers as required by the law.  Eickhout lamented that European governments are slow in condemning the U.S. moves against the EU, and argued that with its recent national security strategy, the Americans have made clear their objective is to divide Europe from within by fueling far-right parties. “Some of the leaders like [French President Emmanuel] Macron are still desperately trying to say that that the United States are our ally,” Eickhout said. “I want to see urgency on how Europe is going to take its own path and not rely on the U.S. anymore, because it’s clear we cannot.”

The European Commission has lost access to its control panel for buying and tracking ads on Elon Musk’s X — after fining the social media platform €120 million for violating EU transparency rules. “Your ad account has been terminated,” X’s head of product, Nikita Bier, wrote on the platform early Sunday. Bier accused the EU executive of trying to amplify its own social media post about the fine on X by trying “to take advantage of an exploit in our Ad Composer — to post a link that deceives users into thinking it’s a video and to artificially increase its reach.” The Commission fined X on Thursday for breaching the EU’s rules under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which aims to limit the spread of illegal content. The breaches included a lack of transparency around X’s advertising library and the company’s decision to change its trademark blue checkmark from a means of verification to a “deceptive” paid feature. “The irony of your announcement,” Bier said. “X believes everyone should have an equal voice on our platform. However, it seems you believe that the rules should not apply to your account.” Trump administration has criticized the DSA and the Digital Markets Act, which prevent large online platforms, such as Google, Amazon and Meta, from overextending their online empires. The White House has accused the rules of discriminating against U.S. companies, and the fine will likely amplify transatlantic trade tensions. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has already threatened to keep 50 percent tariffs on European exports of steel and aluminum unless the EU loosens its digital rules. U.S. Vice President JD Vance blasted Brussels’ action, describing the fine as a response for “not engaging in censorship” — a notion the Commission has dismissed. “The DSA is having not to do with censorship,” said the EU’s tech czar, Henna Virkkunen, told reporters on Thursday. “This decision is about the transparency of X.”

Elon Musk slammed the EU after it slapped a fine on his social media platform X for violating transparency rules, warning his response would target the top officials behind the penalty. “The ‘EU’ imposed this crazy fine not just on [X], but also on me personally, which is even more insane!” the billionaire Tesla CEO wrote on X. “Therefore, it would seem appropriate to apply our response not just to the EU, but also to the individuals who took this action against me.” The rebuke comes after the European Commission on Friday imposed a €120 million fine on Musk’s platform for breaching transparency obligations it faces as a very large online platform under the EU’s Digital Services Act, the bloc’s flagship content moderation law. The EU executive said the platform’s blue checkmark feature was deceptive after it was changed from denoting verified users into a paid feature. It also said X’s advertising library lacks transparency, and that it fails to provide access to public data for researchers. A Commission official said the executive has found three entities behind X; X Holdings Companies, xAI and Elon Musk “at the top.” Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said the fine is “for a breach committed by X” but “addressed to the entire corporate structure.” “The EU woke Stasi commissars are about to understand the full meaning of the ‘Streisand Effect,'” Musk fumed. The “Streisand effect” refers to when an attempt to keep something discreet backfires. Musk didn’t elaborate on what form his response to the X levy would take or which individuals he would target directly. The fine on X and its owner has already drawn a sharp rebuke from Washington, with U.S. officials depicting the bloc’s move as an assault on broader free speech rights, with some alleging that U.S. companies were being singled out. Vice President JD Vance criticized the fine after details leaked ahead of time. “The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage,” Vance said. When asked about Vance’s remarks, the Commission’s Executive Vice President for Tech Sovereignty Henna Virkkunen told reporters: “The DSA is having not to do with censorship, this decision is about the transparency of X.”  Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a Friday post on the platform, said the fine “isn’t just an attack on [X], it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments. The days of censoring Americans online are over. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau added to the criticism, saying that the “nations of Europe cannot look to the US for their own security at the same time they affirmatively undermine the security of the US itself through the (unelected, undemocratic, and unrepresentative) EU.” Trump’s EU envoy Andrew Puzder also slammed the penalty. The “excessive €120M fine is the result of EU regulatory overreach targeting American innovation,” Puzder wrote on X. “The Trump Administration has been clear: we oppose censorship and will challenge burdensome regulations that target US companies abroad. We expect the EU to engage in fair, open, & reciprocal trade — & nothing less.” The move adds another layer of tension to the EU’s strained relationship with the Trump administration, with the U.S. president threatening to impose additional tariffs on the bloc if it continues to penalize American tech giants. The topic has been a theme of tense trade talks in recent months, with the U.S. pushing Brussels to scrap the DSA, along with other enforcement measures. While the fine was cautiously praised in Brussels and other European capitals, where officials had worried that the EU executive would bow to demands that it rein in its enforcement of U.S. tech firms, some European politicians more aligned with the U.S. agenda joined in on the criticism. “Nobody elected you,” wrote far-right Dutch firebrand Geert Wilders. “You represent no one. You are a totalitarian institution and can’t even spell the words freedom of speech. We should not accept the fining of [X], but abolish the [Commission].” The fine was only the conclusion of the first part of the EU’s probe into X, which will also look at the content circulated on the platform. X did not immediately respond to request for comment.

BRUSSELS — The European Commission plans to wrap several of its investigations into Big Tech under the bloc’s content moderation law soon, tech chief Henna Virkkunen said Friday. That’s likely to enrage officials in Washington, several of whom said that they consider U.S. companies are being unfairly targeted by Brussels. The European Commission on Friday slapped a €120 million fine on Elon Musk’s X for not complying with transparency obligations under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). It was the first-ever fine under the law that makes platforms liable for content moderation. “In the coming months, there will be more decisions coming,” Virkkunen told reporters after a meeting of EU digital affairs ministers in Brussels. “With most of the investigations, we already have published the preliminary findings, and after that, the next step is to encourage those online platforms to comply with our rules,” she said. If they don’t, a non-compliance decision — which could include a fine — would follow. While European politicians expressed cautious praise for the X decision on Friday, the Trump administration reacted with fury. “The European Commission’s $140 million fine isn’t just an attack on @X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X. “The days of censoring Americans online are over.” When asked by POLITICO to respond to the accusation that the EU is unfairly targeting American companies, Virkkunen said that of 10 platforms under formal investigation under the DSA, only three are U.S. companies. French President Emmanuel Macron said last week he felt Brussels was “afraid” of tackling U.S. Big Tech and that an “American offensive” had cowed the European Commission. In a press briefing earlier in the day, Virkkunen said that in the case of X, it had taken too long to go from preliminary findings to a final decision. “I agree that it took a very long time, especially from the preliminary findings, because the preliminary findings on this topics [were] already published in summer 2024,” she said.

BRUSSELS — The European Commission on Friday imposed a €120 million fine on Elon Musk’s X, the first-ever penalty issued under the bloc’s flagship content moderation law.   The move is likely to inflame tensions with the U.S. over the bloc’s digital rules and prompted early criticism from U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who blasted the plans as a fine for “not engaging in censorship.” While the fine’s size is moderate compared to earlier tech penalties issued by Brussels, the U.S. has repeatedly pushed the EU to water down its tech rule books in trade talks.   X was found in breach of transparency obligations it faces as a very large online platform under the EU’s Digital Services Act. The Commission said the design of X’s blue checkmark is “deceptive,” after it was changed from user verification into a paid feature.  The EU’s executive also said X’s advertising library lacks transparency and that it fails to provide access to public data for researchers as required by the law.  The fine marks the conclusion of only one part of the EU’s probe into X, which opened almost two years ago as the first one under the DSA. Other major parts, such as on X’s efforts to counter the spread of illegal content and battle information manipulation, are still ongoing.   The European Commission’s Executive Vice President for Tech Sovereignty Henna Virkkunen contrasted the EU’s decision on X with a separate decision on TikTok also released Friday. The investigation into TikTok’s ad library was closed with no fine because the company offered to change the design of its service. “We’re not here to impose the highest fines, we’re here to make sure that our digital legislation is enforced. If you comply with our rules, you don’t get a fine,” Virkkunen told reporters at a briefing Friday morning.  Under the DSA, companies can be fined up to 6 percent of global annual turnover. While X’s global revenues are estimated to be in the low single-digit billions, Musk’s range of companies has revenues that are much higher.  Virkkunen said that they estimated the size of the fine to be “proportionate” and said it was calculated considering “the nature of these infringements, their gravity in terms of affected EU users, and their duration.” Asked to clarify how the EU calculated the amount, a senior Commission official repeated the idea of proportionality and said that it cannot be “drilled down to a simple economic formula.”  Brussels has been under growing pressure from EU leaders, European Parliament lawmakers and digital rights groups to wrap up the investigation into X to show that it’s protecting its citizens online.  U.S. officials have repeatedly attacked the DSA as amounting to censorship and threatened to retaliate with trade tariffs. On Thursday night, Vance said again that the EU should not be attacking American companies.  “Rumors swirling that the EU commission will fine X hundreds of millions of dollars for not engaging in censorship. The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage,” Vance wrote on X. “Much appreciated,” Musk said in response. When asked about Vance’s remarks, Virkkunen told reporters: “The DSA is having not to do with censorship, this decision is about the transparency of X.”  X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  TikTok spokesperson Paolo Ganino told POLITICO: “We take our obligations under EU law seriously and reiterate our call for a level playing field. We expect these DSA standards to be applied equally and consistently across all platforms.” 

BRUSSELS — The European Commission on Friday accused Meta and TikTok of breaching the bloc’s landmark social media regulation. The EU executive said Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, and TikTok all failed in their obligations to give researchers access to data from their platforms. The two Meta platforms also failed on three obligations to empower users in flagging illegal content and challenging moderation decisions, it said. The platforms now have the right to reply to the Commission’s allegations under the Digital Services Act (DSA). Should they fail to convince the EU executive, they risk fines of up to 6 percent of annual global revenue. “We disagree with any suggestion that we have breached the DSA, and we continue to negotiate” with the Commission on these issues, Meta spokesperson Ben Walters said. Meta has “introduced changes to our content reporting options, appeals process and data access tools since the DSA came into force and are confident that these solutions match what is required under the law in the EU,” he said. TikTok spokesperson Paolo Ganino said the firm was “reviewing the European Commission’s findings, but requirements to ease data safeguards place the DSA and [General Data Protection Regulation] in direct tension. If it is not possible to fully comply with both, we urge regulators to provide clarity on how these obligations should be reconciled.” Ganino added it had “made substantial investments in data sharing and almost 1,000 research teams have been given access to data through our Research Tools to date.” The moves are part of ongoing efforts to enforce the bloc’s digital rules. Meta is the second American platform to be accused of breaking the rules: Elon Musk’s X was accused of doing so more than a year ago, in July 2024. China’s Temu and AliExpress have also been accused of breaches. The EU executive opened its investigation into Meta in April last year and expanded it in May. TikTok’s probe started in February 2024, and was extended twice in April and in December (with the April section closed after TikTok agreed to pull the product in question from Europe). None of the findings have so far led to fines. Friday’s findings said Facebook and Instagram didn’t make a system to allow users to flag illegal content sufficiently user-friendly, and also that the companies designed the interface deceptively. The platforms also made a difficult interface to use in order to challenge content moderation decisions, the Commission said. Several other parts of the probes remain open, including on how the platforms protect minors and their role in election manipulation. The Trump administration has launched repeated attacks on the EU’s DSA law, calling it “Orwellian” and accusing the bloc of censorship.

Meta and TikTok have dealt a blow to the European Commission’s social media rule book, pressing the EU executive to codify how it calculates the number of users on online platforms. The General Court at the Court of Justice of the European Union sided with the social media companies on Wednesday in their challenge of an annual supervisory fee the European Union charges to pay for the enforcement of its tech rulebook, the Digital Services Act (DSA). It’s the first major court loss for the Commission over the DSA, which entered into force in 2022 and can be wielded to fine social media and e-commerce platforms up to 6 percent of their global annual revenue. The EU has yet to finalize investigations under the law. At the heart of the case are platforms’ disagreements with how the EU calculated the fee. The Commission directly supervises “very large online platforms” with over 45 million average monthly users in the bloc. Meta and TikTok challenged the European Commission’s decisions imposing so-called supervisory fees in 2024. These fees are meant to support the Commission’s work overseeing the very platforms that pay it — an extension of the “polluter pays” principle often used in environmental policy — and are proportionate to the number of users platforms have in the EU. The EU’s General Court said in its ruling the Commission should have passed a separate set of rules about how users are calculated before determining the fees. Judges gave the Commission a year to draft a text on how it calculates platform users, or else potentially refund the platforms’ 2023 fees. The EU executive has already been working on such rules, called a delegated act. The Commission said the court merely ruled against it on procedure and not substance. “The Court confirms our methodology is sound: no error in calculation, no suspension of any payments, no problem with the principle of the fee nor the amount,” said spokesperson Thomas Regnier. Meta said in a statement that the judgement “will force the European Commission to reassess the unfair methodology being used to calculate these DSA fees,” adding it “looks forward to the flaws in the methodology being addressed.” TikTok “welcomed” the decision and will “closely follow the development” of the case, company spokesperson Paolo Ganino said.

Europe won’t compromise on its right to regulate American Big Tech companies despite threats by President Donald Trump, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday. “I want to be crystal clear on one point: whether on environmental or digital regulation, we set our own standards, we set our own regulations,” von der Leyen said during her annual State of the Union address in Strasbourg on Wednesday. In late August, just a week after the EU and the U.S. had finished their trade deal, Trump had threatened the EU’s landmark rules on content moderation and digital competition, the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, and tech taxes. These are “designed to harm” U.S. technology, and he threatened to impose tariffs on countries that have them. Previously, top Commission officials, such as Executive Vice Presidents Stéphane Séjourné and Teresa Ribera, had said that the EU should review the trade deal if Trump followed up on his threat. The U.S. administration has pressured the EU for many months to tone down enforcement of its tech laws ranging from social media laws to privacy rules and more.

BRUSSELS — The European Union’s dream of fending off U.S. attacks on its tech rules was short-lived.  Just days after the bloc’s officials boasted they had kept their landmark rules on content moderation and digital competition out of an EU-U.S. trade deal, President Donald Trump brought them back into play through a post on his social network Truth Social.   “I will stand up to Countries that attack our incredible American Tech Companies,” he posted. Digital taxes and rules on digital services or markets were “designed to harm” U.S. technology, he said, and threatened to impose tariffs on countries that have them. Without a hitch, a now-familiar playbook unfolded: The European Commission stood by its “sovereign right to regulate,” European lawmakers urged the EU executive not to give in, and experts quipped that the EU might have to relinquish the very right to regulate it had claimed as a big win in the trade deal.  “We must stand firm on our principles and react if words actually become action,” said Italian Social Democrat lawmaker Brando Benifei, chair of the European Parliament’s EU-U.S. delegation.   The back-and-forth is the umpteenth episode of a saga that started right after Trump took office. The U.S. has tried every possible trick in the book to undermine the EU’s tech rule books, the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, claiming they censor Americans and unfairly target American companies. Meanwhile, Brussels is clinging to its right to regulate the digital space and U.S. tech companies.   Just when Brussels thought it had won some relief, its biggest headache — the enforcement of its landmark tech rules — is back. The Commission’s tech and competition departments, DG Connect and DG Comp, are overseeing several open probes under the DSA and the DMA, while one against Elon Musk’s X is being closely watched.   Last Thursday, the European Commission’s trade chief Maroš Šefčovič said both rule books had been kept out of the trade talks, but that the door had been left open for later talks.   Trump didn’t wait long to restart that discussion. NO TO BLACKMAIL Just before Trump’s threats, a Reuters report said the U.S. was considering visa restrictions against EU officials over the DSA. European Parliament lawmakers expressed alarm.   “Europe will not rewrite its laws under threat,” said Valérie Hayer, chair of the Parliament’s liberal Renew group, vowing to “block any weakening of our rules.” Hayer added: “Threats of tariffs or blackmail will not change EU law.”   Just days after the bloc’s officials boasted they had kept their landmark rules on content moderation and digital competition out of an EU-U.S. trade deal, President Donald Trump brought them back into play through a post on his social network Truth Social. | Pool photo by Aaron Schwartz via EPA “All EU legislation must be implemented,” agreed Manfred Weber, chair of the conservative European People’s Party.   Yet the Parliament’s lead on the DSA, Danish Social Democrat Christel Schaldemose, said she was “more worried now” than before the summer break.   “The not-very-balanced trade deal was accepted to protect the EU from a trade war and to appease Trump to keep on supporting Ukraine,” she said. Why would Trump not use his bargaining position to get the EU to capitulate once again, she asked.  Greens European Parliament lawmaker Kim Van Sparrentak expressed hope that this would be a “lesson for the Commission” as “bullies don’t speak diplomacy.” The Parliament’s DMA lead, German Andreas Schwab, brushed the threat aside, saying: “We should not let ourselves be driven every week by individual posts on Truth Social.” WHAT DISCRIMINATION? Trump’s threat also took aim at a group of countries that already have some sort of digital services tax in place. Among them are France, Italy and Spain — while Poland and Belgium have announced their intention to do the same.   “The digital services tax is not aimed at entities from any specific country, it is intended to apply to all relevant market participants,” a spokesperson from the Polish Digital Ministry said in written remarks shared with POLITICO when asked about Trump’s remarks.   These countries could face equal pressure to reconsider those taxes. Earlier, Canada rescinded its tech tax as part of trade talks with the U.S.  Trump also threatened to leverage the EU’s heavy reliance on U.S. technology, as countries that have tech rules or taxes in place could face export restrictions on “highly protected technology and chips.” The EU had just promised last week to buy “at least” €40 billion worth of U.S. artificial intelligence chips.   The bloc aims to ramp up the construction of large-scale computer and data storage facilities that can help with training the most complex AI models. For that it is entirely reliant on U.S. chips, since it has no production capacity of its own.   Experts see it as another argument for Europe to reduce its reliance on the U.S.   “This development makes one thing crystal clear: The risk of technological coercion and weaponisation is here to stay,” said Giorgos Verdi, policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank. “The most important thing then is that the EU starts charting a course toward building its independent stack of technologies.”