X pulls the plug on European Commission’s ad account after €120M fine

X's Head of Product, Nikita Bier, retaliated against the European Commission (EC) after the body issued a €120 million (approximately $140 million) fine against the social media company.

The fine, the EC's first under the Digital Services Act (DSA), cited X's blue checkmark system as "deceptive," asserting the paid verification makes users vulnerable to impersonation and scams. The commission also stated X's advertising repository failed to meet the DSA’s requirements for transparency and accessibility. The EC requires X to respond to the blue checkmark concerns within 60 days and the ad transparency violations within 90 days, or face potential additional penalties.

X owner Elon Musk described the fine as "bullshit" and subsequently posted calls to "AbolishTheEU."

Following the fine's announcement, X penalized the European Commission’s account on the platform. Bier claimed the action was not related to the fine but rather to the EC's use of X’s advertising system. Quoting the commission’s post about the fine, Bier accused the EC of logging into a "dormant ad account to take advantage of an exploit in our Ad Composer" to post a link that "deceives users into thinking it’s a video and to artificially increase its reach."

Bier stated that the commission’s ad account had been "terminated," adding that the exploit "has never been abused like this" and has since been patched.

A European Commission spokesperson countered, telling TechCrunch that the commission "always uses all social media platforms in good faith" and uses only tools made available by the platforms themselves, such as the "Post Composer" tool in X. The spokesperson added that the commission suspended paid advertising on X in October 2023, and that suspension remains in effect.