Elon Musk-owned social media platform X has been hit with a $140 million fine by the European Commission for breaching transparency obligations under the new Digital Services Act (DSA).

It is the first ruling against a tech company since the laws regulating the content of social media and large technology platforms came into force in 2023, raising tensions with the White House over free speech and technology regulation.

The commission on Friday said the breaches, assessed over two years, include the “deceptive design of its ‘blue checkmark’, the lack of transparency in its advertising repository, and the failure to provide access to public data for researchers”.

The fine is a drop in the Atlantic compared with Musk’s $467 billion wealth and comes after months of intense pressure from US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly expressed frustration over the bloc’s fines and its attempts to regulate American technology companies.

“The EU should be supporting free speech, not attacking American companies over garbage,” US vice-president J.D. Vance said in a post on X before the fine was announced, to which Musk replied: “Much appreciated.”

“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 in a statement.

Musk’s company will have 60 days to fix the issues and 90 days to implement the required changes, or it could face additional penalties, the commission said.

“Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU. The DSA protects users. The DSA gives researchers the means to uncover potential threats. The DSA restores trust in the online environment. With the DSA’s first non-compliance decision, we are holding X responsible for undermining users’ rights and evading accountability,” said Henna Virkkunen, executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, European Commission.

Formal proceedings against X began in December 2023 to assess whether the platform had breached the DSA in areas connected to the dissemination of illegal content and the effectiveness of measures taken to combat information manipulation.

Under DSA regulations, X can be fined up to 6 per cent of its worldwide revenue, which was estimated to be between $2.5 billion and $2.7 billion in 2024. As X is a subsidiary of Musk’s privately held artificial intelligence start-up, xAI, it does not publicly disclose its revenue figures.

The fine comes at a time when EU-US relations are on shaky ground, particularly regarding issues such as the war in Ukraine. The penalty had been expected earlier this year but was delayed during trade negotiations between the EU and the US.

Before Musk acquired the platform, blue ticks were given by the company to verifiable account holders such as politicians, celebrities, public organisations and reputable journalists. Musk decided to monetise the system, allowing users who subscribed to X Premium to be eligible for blue tick status.