Elon Musk hit back on Saturday at the European Union (EU) after his social media platform X was hit with a huge fine, telling his 230 million followers that the EU should be "abolished". So, what should you know about it?
A huge fine for violating the bloc’s digital rules
After a high-profile investigation seen as a test of the EU's resolve to regulate Big Tech, the social media platform owned by the world's richest man was fined 120 million euros (~RM575 million) on Friday for violating the bloc's digital rules.
For your information, the penalty was immediately criticised by the US administration led by Donald Trump, who, as president, once aligned himself with Musk on controversial efforts to reduce the federal workforce and cut spending, before their relationship soured. Musk himself spoke out after the fine was announced, writing on his X account:
"The EU should be abolished, and sovereignty returned to each country, so that the government can better represent the people."
When a user retweeted the statement, Musk replied, "I meant it. Not kidding."
"I love Europe, but not the bureaucratic monster known as the EU," he added in another post.
The fine against X is the first imposed by the European Commission under the Digital Services Act (DSA) for content-related issues.
Moreover, the commission said X was guilty of breaching its transparency obligations under the DSA. The violations included the misleading design of the “blue check mark” for supposedly verified accounts, as well as the failure to provide public data to researchers. X also failed to show sufficient transparency regarding its advertising, the Commission added.
Stay tuned to TechNave.com for more updates.
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