Elon Musk, in response to allegations his social media company X breached European Union online content rules and deceived users with its blue checkmark system, says the European Commission tried to make an "illegal secret deal" with the social media platform.
"The European Commission offered X an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us. The other platforms accepted that deal," he tweeted Friday.
He was responding to a tweet by Margrethe Vestager, the executive vice president of the European Commission EU fit for Digital Age and Commissioner for Competition, who wrote: "In our view @X doesn’t comply with the DSA in key transparency areas. 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."
Musk threatened he would take his case to court over the charges.
DSA regulations, which took effect in February, were put in place to monitor social medial platforms in Europe by removing content and misinformation. Critics say the regulations are sweeping and tantamount to censorship.
Charges against Musk and X are the first of their kind under the new law and could carry a fine of up to 6 percent of the platform's global revenue.
The Commission said X's verified accounts which carry a blue checkmark do not correspond to industry practice and negatively affect users' ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts they interact with.
After buying the platform in 2022, Musk altered the use of the blue checkmark, which previously indicated that an account belonged to a public figure whose identity was verified but was changed to indicate it belonged to a paid subscriber.
The commission said X had also failed to comply with a DSA requirement to provide searchable and reliable information about advertisements in a library for easy access.
Musk said, in response to a separate post, that he looks forward to a "very public battle in court, so that the people of Europe can know the truth."
European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton had three words for Musk in response: "Be our guest."
Reuters contributed to this report.
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