Elon Musk just threatened legal action against authorities in Europe. As is usually the case, he did so through a post on his social media platform X.
For context, the European Commission announced today that X, formerly Twitter, was in breach of Europe’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
Musk wasted no time in hitting back:
The commission had originally started an investigation into the platform in December last year. Some of the findings of the investigation were made public on Tuesday.
The commission was mainly concerned about the way X used the blue checkmark. The blue checkmark, back in the Twitter days, could only be obtained if a user could verify their position as a personality of note.
When Musk took over and renamed the platform to X, he announced that the blue checkmark could be obtained by simply paying.
The commission claims this was a misleading practice and is looking at imposing a multi-million dollar fine on Elon Musk’s platform. X could be fined as much as 6% of its global revenues.
But Musk is not holding back and is willing to take the battle to court.
For once, Musk got an equal response as Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for Internal Market, snapped backed at him by saying “See you (in court or not)”.
While the fight looks spicy when viewed online, this could have serious implications for many American and global tech companies. Europe is not going to budge an inch and will want to impose the DSA in its full force.
If it fails to do that, it will set a precedent that other companies will use in future. Seeing as how often American companies end up paying fines in Europe, the EU does not want to look weak.
Many Americans view this as a battle for truth. With many Americans feeling the mainstream media feeds them propaganda, and a politically charged environment in the country adding to the discontent, people think Musk needs to be backed to expose the mainstream media.
Some are even saying Trump and Elon Musk are the only two influential people capable of saving the world from the mainstream propaganda apparatus. This type of public response is what Musk and Trump often thrive on. So taking the fight to Europe adds to Elon’s image as the seeker of truth.
Whether that fight results in success for the American billionaire remains to be seen. For now, it seems X won’t back down and will continue to fight the battle in court.
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