EU considers including Elon Musk’s business empire to calculate potential X fine

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Elon Musk could face a hefty fine as European regulators look at including revenues from the billionaire’s business empire to calculate a potential fine against social media platform X.

Under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), a landmark piece of legislation aimed at setting the rules on how tech companies should police the internet, companies that fail to curb illegal content and disinformation face penalties of up to 6 per cent of their annual global turnover. 

The European Commission is considering whether revenue from Musk’s other businesses, such as SpaceX and Neuralink, should also be included, in a move that would dramatically increase the potential penalty.

While no final decision has been made, the EU wants to impose fines that are high enough to prevent X from repeatedly breaking the law, said two people familiar with its thinking.

Musk and X have been under intense scrutiny from regulators in Brussels. In 2023, the commission opened a probe into the social media platform over the spread of illegal content and disinformation, in particular terrorist and violent content, in the wake of the Hamas attacks of October 7. 

However, these people stressed that the commission has not yet decided to fine X and that the potential size of any penalty is still being discussed. They added that the commission has not yet concluded that X has broken the law.

X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The social media platform will have the opportunity to challenge any potential fine. X can also take the EU to court if it thinks that the actions taken by the commission are illegal, these people said.

AFP first reported that the EU was considering whether to include revenues from Musk’s other businesses.

A commission spokesperson said: “The obligations under the DSA are addressed to the provider of the very large online platform or very large online search engine. This applies irrespective of whether the entity exercising decisive influence over the platform or search engine is a natural or legal person.” 

Earlier this year, regulators said X’s practices had not complied with the DSA in several areas, such as prohibiting the use of dark patterns — a deceptive technique used to manipulate user behaviour, as well as allowing data access for researchers. It also hit out at X’s decision to allow people to acquire a “checkmark” once reserved for verified users.

Other media platforms are also under scrutiny as the EU uses the new powers granted by the DSA, which was approved last year and imposes new obligations on very large online platforms with more than 45mn users in the bloc. In May, the EU accused Meta of not doing enough to protect children from becoming addicted to social media platforms.