Under the EU's regulatory regime, European commissioners appointed by national leaders have a say in how rules are implemented but generally do not interfere with how authorities enforce the law.When Europe's social media rules came into force last year, Mr. Breton urged enforcement authorities to focus on potential harm at both X and TikTok, according to four officials familiar with the discussions.
California love lost
Breton and Musk were once buddies in the tech industry.
The two have met multiple times to discuss Europe's social media rules, known as the Digital Services Act (DSA), which include fines of up to 6% of global revenue for big tech companies like X if they fail to curb hate speech and other online harms on their platforms. The European Commission, under Breton's direction, has visited X's San Francisco offices at least twice to make sure Musk is complying with the law.
In 2022, the two met at the Tesla factory in Austin, Texas, and posed for an awkward video posted to X. In the video, Musk was dressed casually in a T-shirt and jeans, while Breton, a European official, was in a suit and tie. In the three-minute video, the European Commissioner talked about how he discussed the EU's new social media rules with the tech mogul.
But the friendship faded, and in late July Brussels accused Musk's social network of failing to comply with EU social media law, marking the first investigation under the DSA.
European enforcement authorities alleged that X's so-called “blue checks,” which anyone can now buy, misled others about the reliability of online content. The company also failed to be transparent about how the group bought online ads on its platform and did not allow outsiders access to public data, a violation of the DSA.
