Commission also says it will remain on X for now to “get in touch” with citizens.

The European Commission said it will “make sure” it receives money owed by Elon Musk’s X after the company was fined €120 million for failing to meet transparency rules.

The Commission on Friday said X has breached transparency and deceptive design obligations under the EU’s platforms regulation, the Digital Services Act, and issued the €120 million penalty.

The decision set off a cascade of accusations of censorship from U.S. officials, Musk and his supporters, with some suggesting the company should refuse to pay the fine.

    • Madison420@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      9 days ago

      You could take a dime from a millionaire and they would cry about it forever. It’s not about the money it’s about the conversion of money to power, it’s a loss of power they’re upset about not necessarily the actual money or what it could be used on.

    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.worldEnglish
      61·
      9 days ago

      Oddly enough, I think this would be an effective thing.

      Musk, like all bullies, just doesn’t want any accountability whatsoever. Yes, the amount is trivial given his means, but as we saw in South America, he is perfectly willing to back down when a challenge is meaningful, culturally if not materially.

      • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.todayEnglish
        2·
        9 days ago

        Right, just like Florida Senator Rick Scott didn’t get wealthy committing the largest Medicaire fraud in history, after pleading the 5th over 185 times in his trial. The blame was the company that he owned, and was the CEO. The company paid a massive fine, but he kept his stolen government money, and went on to run for Governor of Florida, where he continued his campaign of stealing from the government, doubling his net worth, and is now a Florida Senator, where he was recently caught on video railing against talk of abolishing insider trading for Senators, whining that “Democrats want to keep people from earning money!”

        No, you penis with ears, making a living is fine, but you are using a method that would put any of the rest of us in prison for years, and that happens all the time. We just expect YOU to live by the same laws as US.

        He HATES it when people post these reminders of how his entire fortune is build on taking money from the government, as he rails against Career Politicians, and runs on term limits, which he never introduces once he’s on office.

    • MonkeMischief@lemmy.todayEnglish
      5·
      9 days ago

      Yeah, the sheer insanity here is that $120M is like, losing a comparative 12¢ to him.

      Wikipedia puts the worthless cur’s “worth” at ~470B.

      I’m no mathematician but…

      470,000,000,000

      −120,000,000

      =469,880,000,000

      OoOOOoo way to go. You go make sure he pays that huuuge fine. I’m sure he’ll lose sleep over this one!

      Fine him 12% of his net worth and THAT would at least be an actual penalty.

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.todayEnglish
      3·
      9 days ago

      He’s a trillionaire if the failing Tesla hits specific, and probably impossible targets. More likely, Tesla is bankrupt in two years.

      But that doesn’t stop the PR department from cranking out their propaganda that he’s already a Trillionaire.

  • A_norny_mousse@feddit.orgEnglish
    13·
    10 days ago

    [X] hasn’t replied to POLITICO’s repeated requests for comment.

    lol

    Not the main point, but I found this interesting:

    Regnier also justified the Commission’s continued use of X as a platform for corporate communications, despite the severity of anti-EU comments posted by Musk over the weekend and the platform’s decision to suspend the Commission’s account for paid advertising.

    The EU executive uses 15 social media platforms and hasn’t made a decision to suspend its use of X, Regnier said.

    All these platforms are ways to “get in touch to citizens, stakeholders, to do some outreach work, to precisely speak about what we are doing in the EU,” he said.

    Statements comparing the EU to Nazi Germany are “part of the freedom of speech that we very much praise in the EU,” which “allows even for the craziest statements that you can imagine,” Chief Spokesperson Paula Pinho said.

    The Commission stopped “using paid advertising or any paid services for X” in 2023 and its regular account remains open, Regnier said.

  • ThrowawayOnLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    10 days ago

    Is this like when the local library hounds me for late return fees? It feels financially comparable when you slap such a small amount on it .