Editor’s Note
This opinion piece critiques the EU’s recent fine against X (formerly Twitter) under the Digital Services Act, arguing the penalty is economically and diplomatically counterproductive. The views expressed are the author’s own.
A question arises from the European Union’s decision on the 5th to impose a fine on X (formerly Twitter), led by U.S. entrepreneur Elon Musk: “What on earth are they thinking?” Even within the EU, it is rare for a single policy measure to cause so much economic self-destruction and diplomatic damage all at once.
This fine of 120 million euros (approximately 21.7 billion yen) is for violations of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). This marks the first time the EU has enforced the law in this manner since the DSA came into effect in 2022. The European Commissioners in charge of online regulation have cited several alleged violations. The most absurd claim is that X’s system of selling blue verification checkmarks “adversely affects users’ ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of accounts and the reliability of the content they interact with.”
More serious is the EU’s demand that X make its advertising-related data easily accessible to outsiders, while also arguing that its terms of service should not prohibit data scraping by “qualified researchers.” The EU contends that such open access to X’s advertising data is essential to enable researchers and “civil society” to identify fraud and information manipulation.
This reference to “civil society” is key. The EU wants to force X (and inevitably other platforms) to share data that could then be used by hostile activists as ammunition against these platforms in future regulatory actions or lawsuits. All of this is predicated on the theory that European citizens are foolish and gullible when it comes to online information from sources like X.