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Citing concerns that X's paid blue tick badges "deceive users" by not "meaningfully verifying" account holders, the EU has fined Elon Musk's social media platform €120m (£105m). The European Commission warned that this deception exposes users to scams, including impersonation fraud, and other forms of manipulation, a decision that has sparked an angry reaction from the US.
But the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) accused the Commission of targeting X merely because it was "a successful US tech company".
"Europe is taxing Americans to subsidise a continent held back by Europe's own suffocating regulations," Brendan Carr, chair of the FCC wrote on X.
His comments echoed those made by US Vice-President JD Vance. He lashed out at the EU amid rumours of its forthcoming fine on Thursday - claiming the platform was being punished "for not engaging in censorship".
"The EU should be supporting free speech, not attacking American companies over garbage," he said.
Social media expert Matt Navarra said the comments showed the fine was not "just a punishment but a statement" of the EU's willingness to enforce its regulation of tech firms.
In addition to taking issue with its use of blue ticks, EU regulators said X was also failing to provide transparency around its adverts, and it was not giving researchers access to public data.
"The fine issued today was calculated taking into account the nature of these infringements, their gravity in terms of affected EU users, and their duration," the Commission said.
Henna Virkkunen, the regulator's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, said it was "holding X responsible for undermining users' rights and evading accountability".
"Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU," she said.
The decision means X must tell the Commission how it will bring the allegedly violating measures into compliance with EU laws, or face further, periodic fines.
The action constitutes the Commission's first decision on a platform's "non-compliance" with its Digital Services Act (DSA) - one of two rulebooks online firms must follow in order to operate their services in the EU.
