Billionaire Elon Musk repeatedly criticized the European Union (EU) on his X social media account, which has 230 million followers, on 6/12. This followed the EU's decision to fine X 140 million USD for violating the bloc's cybersecurity regulations.

"EU should dissolve and return sovereignty to individual nations, allowing their governments to better represent their people," Musk wrote. "I am serious, not joking."

"I love Europe, but I do not love the bureaucratic monster that is the EU," he further stated in another post.

Elon Musk at a conference in Paris, France, 6/2023. Photo: Reuters

This marks the first time the European Commission has fined a social media company under the Digital Services Act (DSA) concerning content. The Commission stated that X violated the DSA's transparency obligations.

The violations include the misleading design of the platform's "blue verification checkmark" for supposedly verified accounts, and failure to provide public data access to researchers. X also lacked full transparency regarding advertising regulations.

The administration of US President Donald Trump criticized the fine. US Vice President JD Vance reshared Musk's post from 7/2024 about the European Commission proposing a secret agreement with X for the platform to silently censor speeches to avoid fines.

"Other platforms accepted that agreement. X did not," Musk wrote.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented: "The European Commission's 140 million USD fine is not just an attack on X. This is an attack on all US tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments. The era of online censorship for Americans is over."

Hong Hanh (According to AFP)