Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,
Elon Musk escalated his confrontation with Brussels on Monday, declaring on X that “the EU commissars are responsible for the murder of Europe” after the European Commission insisted it would “make sure” the social media platform pays the €120 million fine imposed last week for alleged violations of the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The Commission announced on Friday that X had breached transparency rules and used deceptive design practices under the bloc’s online-platform regulation, with specific criticism of its blue-tick verification system. The EU regulator said the system exposes people to scams, impersonation, and manipulation by malicious actors.
The move prompted a swift backlash in Washington as senior U.S. officials accused the EU of censorship, regulatory harassment, and unfair targeting of American technology firms. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “The European Commission’s $140 million fine isn’t just an attack on X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments. The days of censoring Americans online are over.”
Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, likewise criticized the EU action, saying, “Once again, Europe is fining a successful U.S. tech company for being a successful U.S. tech company. Europe is taxing Americans to subsidize a continent held back by Europe’s own suffocating regulations.”
Howard Lutnick, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, added that “the Digital Services Act is designed to stifle free speech and American tech companies,” while U.S. Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder described the penalty as “excessive” and a result of “EU regulatory overreach.”
Musk has frequently clashed with liberal Western governments, accusing them of suppressing free expression. In recent months, he has publicly backed figures on Europe’s political right, including Alice Weidel of Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) and several anti-mass immigration MPs in the United Kingdom, such as Rupert Lowe.
“Remigration is the normal position,” Musk wrote on Monday, remarking on a poll indicating that seven in ten Danes support deporting foreign nationals convicted of crimes.
Over the weekend, he intensified his criticism of Brussels by calling for the “abolition” of the European Union, claiming it prioritizes bureaucracy over democracy. “Dissolve the EU and return power to the people,” he wrote while commenting on a European Court of Justice ruling last year that upheld a financial penalty against Hungary for refusing to accept migrant quotas under the EU Migration Pact. That scheme requires member states either to accept allocated asylum seekers or pay roughly €20,000 per person as a solidarity contribution.
Musk has also claimed the controversy has boosted X’s popularity. He said the platform was seeing “record-breaking downloads in many countries in Europe” following the announcement of the fine, calling X the number one news app “in every EU country.”
At the Commission’s daily briefing on Monday, spokesperson Thomas Regnier said the penalty would be enforced. “X will have to pay that fine. The €120 million will have to be paid. We will make sure that we get this money,” he told reporters.
Regnier said the Commission would continue to use X to communicate with the public despite the platform’s decision to suspend the Commission’s account for paid advertising in response to the penalty. He said the EU executive uses all its social media accounts, including those on X, “to get in touch with citizens, stakeholders, to do some outreach work, to precisely speak about what we are doing in the EU.”
X can still challenge the decision, and Regnier confirmed the company “has 90 days to get back” to the Commission on how it intends to proceed.
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