{"id":126387,"date":"2025-12-10T05:09:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T05:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/elon-musks-x-bans-european-commission-from-making-ads-after-e120m-fine\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T05:09:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T05:09:25","slug":"elon-musks-x-bans-european-commission-from-making-ads-after-e120m-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/elon-musks-x-bans-european-commission-from-making-ads-after-e120m-fine\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s X bans European Commission from making ads after \u20ac120m fine"},"content":{"rendered":"

X has blocked the European Commission from making adverts on its platform \u2013 a move which comes a few days after it fined Elon Musk\u2019s site \u20ac120m (\u00a3105m) over its blue tick badges.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nikita Bier, who has a senior role at the social media site, accused the European Union (EU) regulator, external of trying to \u201ctake advantage\u201d of \u201can exploit\u201d in its advertising system to promote its post about the fine on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems you believe that the rules should not apply to your account,\u201d he said. \u201cYour ad account has been terminated.\u201d<\/p>\n

A European Commission spokesperson told BBC News the Commission \u201calways uses all social media platforms in good faith\u201d.<\/p>\n

X\u2019s fine, issued on Friday, was the first under the EU\u2019s Digital Services Act.<\/p>\n

The EU regulator said the platform\u2019s blue tick system was \u201cdeceptive\u201d because the firm was not \u201cmeaningfully verifying users\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis deception exposes users to scams, including impersonation frauds, as well as other forms of manipulation by malicious actors,\u201d it said, external.<\/p>\n

It claimed X was also failing to provide transparency around its adverts, and was not giving researchers access to public data.<\/p>\n

The social media platform has been given 60 days to respond to the Commission about concerns surrounding its blue checkmarks, or face extra penalties.<\/p>\n

Following the fine, Elon Musk posted on his platform to say the EU \u201cshould be abolished\u201d, and retweeted a response from another X user comparing it to fascism.<\/p>\n

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) accused the EU regulator of attacking and censoring US firms, external, adding, \u201cthe days of censoring Americans online are over\u201d.<\/p>\n

The dispute originated with Mr Bier, who accused the Commission of activating a rarely-used account \u201cto take advantage of an exploit\u201d.<\/p>\n

He claimed it had posted a link which itself deceived users \u2013 tricking them into thinking it was a video \u201cto artificially increase its reach\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the \u201cexploit\u201d, which had \u201cnever been abused like this\u201d, had now been removed.<\/p>\n

Ad accounts on X are used by businesses to create and analyse paid advertising campaigns and run \u201cpromoted\u201d posts on the site, separate from the users\u2019 X profile.<\/p>\n

In response, a European Commission spokesperson told BBC News that it was \u201csimply using the tools that platforms themselves are making available to our corporate accounts\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2060We expect these tools to be fully in line with the platforms\u2019 own terms and conditions, as well as with our legislative framework,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

And it is not the first time there has been disagreement between X and global regulators.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court lifted a ban on X after it agreed to pay 28 million reais ($5.1m; \u00a33.8m), and blocked accounts accused of spreading misinformation.<\/p>\n

The previous year, Australia\u2019s internet safety watchdog fined it A$610,000 ($386,000; \u00a3317,360) for failing to cooperate with a probe into anti-child abuse practices.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

X has blocked the European Commission from making adverts on its platform \u2013 a move which comes a few days after it fined Elon Musk\u2019s site \u20ac120m (\u00a3105m) over its blue tick badges. Nikita Bier, who has a senior role at the social media site, accused the European Union (EU) regulator, external of trying to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}