🚀 EU May Consider Musk’s Entire Business Empire When Fining X
posted 17 Oct 2024
Lawmakers in the European Union are weighing the option of calculating fines for X by factoring in the revenue streams from Elon Musk’s other enterprises, such as SpaceX and Neuralink. This could lead to a steep rise in potential financial penalties for Musk over breaches in content moderation.
As a reminder, X is a private entity exclusively controlled by Elon Musk. This has led the EU to explore the idea of factoring in revenues from Musk’s other businesses, in addition to X, when calculating potential fines.
According to the Digital Services Act, the EU can fine social media platforms, online forums, and other digital services up to 6% of their yearly revenue if they fail to tackle illegal content or misinformation, or violate transparency guidelines.
As a reminder, X is a private entity exclusively controlled by Elon Musk. This has led the EU to explore the idea of factoring in revenues from Musk’s other businesses, in addition to X, when calculating potential fines.
Bloomberg received this information from anonymous sources familiar with the discussions.
The European Commission is investigating X over several potential breaches of the Digital Services Act, a set of regulations introduced to ensure platforms can manage illegal content appropriately.
As of now, the Commission has not presented any formal accusations against X or clarified how the fine might be calculated. The matter is being handled by Margrethe Vestager, who assumed the role of commissioner after Thierry Breton stepped down.
Margrethe Vestager and Thierry Breton at a press briefing. Source: euronews.com
Sources suggest that X will be able to appeal any EU ruling, but the final decision rests with the Commission. So far, X’s team has remained silent, declining to comment when approached by journalists.
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