Elon Musk Tests Europe’s Willingness to Enforce Its Online Laws

Backed by White House officials, the tech billionaire has lashed out at the European Union after his social media platform X was fined last week.

Elon Musk is daring European authorities to take him on.

The billionaire lashed out at the European Union over the past week after regulators fined X, the social media platform he owns, roughly $140 million for violating digital transparency rules.

In response, Mr. Musk called for the abolishment of the 27-nation bloc, compared it to Nazi Germany and cast efforts to regulate X as a personal attack. X also barred the European Commission, which issued the fine last week, from advertising on the platform for policy violations.

“The E.U. should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people,” Mr. Musk wrote on X.

Mr. Musk has grown increasingly confrontational toward Europe over the past year. But his fresh antagonism comes at a delicate time after regulators said that X broke the law by allowing users to mislead others about their identities, maintaining opaque advertising practices and refusing to provide researchers with data access.

Another investigation of X’s approach to content moderation is underway in Brussels, which could lead to additional fines and orders to change company policies. Authorities in Ireland and France are also investigating the platform.

With his taunts, Mr. Musk — who was a close adviser to President Trump early this year — is testing regulators’ resolve to enforce laws designed to improve transparency and prevent the spread of illicit content. Researchers said such material has proliferated on X since Mr. Musk acquired it in 2022.

“The intention is clearly to intimidate regulators,” said Martin Husovec, an associate professor of law at London School of Economics and Political Science who is an expert on internet regulation. “If you link yourself up with the president of the United States, then you can intimidate European regulators from doing their job.”

Mr. Musk can appeal the E.U. ruling. In the meantime, if he does not pay the fine and comply, authorities can add further penalties. An E.U. spokesman said a ban of X was not under consideration.

Mr. Musk and X did not respond to requests for comment.

The standoff illustrates a free speech divide between the United States and Europe. In the United States, free speech protections allow companies like X to set their own content policies. Mr. Trump and others on the right have successfully pushed social media firms to roll back moderation rules they viewed as silencing conservative voices.

But in Britain and the European Union, laws adopted since 2022 require X and other platforms to remove certain racist, antisemitic and violent content once it is flagged by users.

The split leaves European authorities wrestling with how aggressively they should enforce their laws, especially against a company with powerful allies in the White House.

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“Europe has to be careful,” Mr. Trump said on Monday, discussing the fine against X. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio also criticized the E.U. decision.

Henna Virkkunen, the European commissioner who issued the fine against X, declined to comment. A spokesman said the commission would keep enforcing its rules “because it is our sovereign legislation, here to protect citizens in the European Union from online risks.”

Mr. Musk appears to be capitalizing on Europe’s bruised relationship with the United States, including over the war in Ukraine. A national security strategy released by the White House last week said that Europe risked “civilizational erasure” for policies seen as undermining liberty, sovereignty and free speech.

At the same time, Mr. Musk is playing an increasingly visible role in European politics, including backing calls for mass deportations of immigrants.

In Britain, Mr. Musk has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Keir Starmer and has backed the populist Reform U.K. party, created by Nigel Farage, who led the Brexit campaign. In Germany, Mr. Musk has supported the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

Mr. Musk’s company SpaceX also provides key satellite communication technology to soldiers in Ukraine.

Sunder Katwala, the founder of British Future, a London-based think tank, said Mr. Musk’s stature has made regulators reluctant to act. He said X is likely in breach of the Online Safety Act, a 2023 law that requires companies to take “robust action” against illegal content, which can include attacks based on a person’s race, sexuality or religion.

Mr. Katwala said he reported at least 100 examples to X of people being targeted with a vulgar racial slur used against Pakistani people in Britain. In more than 90 percent of the cases, X’s complaint system ignored or rejected the complaint, he said.

In November, Mr. Katwala submitted his findings to Ofcom, the British regulator charged with enforcing the Online Safety Act. This month, the agency said it was investigating whether unnamed social media platforms were doing enough to identify and remove hate- and terror-related content.

“There is a confrontation coming at some point,” Mr. Katwala said.

Ofcom did not respond to a request for comment.

Josephine Ballon, the managing director of HateAid, a group in Germany tracking online hate, said all social media platforms have problems, but Mr. Musk is the most openly hostile. X stopped cooperating with German law enforcement agencies investigating illegal hate speech cases, including court orders, she said.

“It’s like they are not even willing to pretend that they are going to comply with the law anymore,” Ms. Ballon said.

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