Elon Musk has said: The European Commission offered 𝕏 an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us

Elon Musk has said:

The European Commission offered 𝕏 an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us.

The other platforms accepted that deal. 𝕏 did not.

In a separate exchange on the platform, Musk threatened to further his case in court over the Commission's charges.

The DSA, a comprehensive set of regulations that holds platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and others responsible for protecting European users and removing harmful content and misinformation, came into effect in February this year.

The charges against X are the first issued under the new law, with infringements carrying hefty fines amounting to 6 percent of the platform’s global revenue.

Musk did not divulge any further details about the terms of the reported “secret deal.”

EU accuses X of breaching digital content rules; Musk alleges dirty deal
Euronews Next has requested comment from X to clarify the terms of the deal but received a generic press office response: “Busy now, please check back later.”

Musk’s harsh words were in response to an earlier post from Margrethe Vestager, the outgoing Executive Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Competition.

"In our view, X doesn’t comply with the DSA in key transparency areas," she wrote.

"It misleads users, fails to provide an adequate ad repository, and blocks access to data for researchers. It’s the first time we issue preliminary findings under the Digital Services Act."

The Commission began a probe into X in December and released its preliminary findings on Tuesday.

According to the Commission, X's blue checkmark — which was used to verify accounts on the platform — was deceptive and had been abused by malicious actors to mislead other users.

As a result of the findings, Musk’s platform could now face a multi-million-euro fine.