X terminates European Commission’s ad account after €120 million fine

X terminated the European Fee’s promoting account on December 7, 2025, two days after the regulatory physique imposed a €120 million fine against the platform for Digital Services Act violations, marking an unprecedented escalation within the battle between the social media firm and European regulators.

Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, announced the termination in a response to the Fee’s announcement of the advantageous, in keeping with a put up on X. “The irony of your announcement: You logged into your dormant advert account to make the most of an exploit in our Advert Composer — to put up a hyperlink that deceives customers into considering it is a video and to artificially improve its attain,” Bier wrote.

“As chances are you’ll bear in mind, X believes everybody ought to have an equal voice on our platform,” Bier continued. “Nonetheless, it appears you imagine that the foundations shouldn’t apply to your account. Your advert account has been terminated.”

The accusation creates a notable contradiction: X’s head of product acknowledged the platform presents promoting codecs able to deceiving customers about content material kind, the identical class of misleading design practices cited within the European Fee’s €120 million advantageous. Bier’s assertion characterizes this advert format as an “exploit” slightly than an intentional product characteristic, suggesting the platform acknowledges the misleading potential of sure promoting presentation strategies.

The account suspension prevents the European Fee from working paid ads on X, severing a channel the regulatory physique beforehand used for public campaigns on local weather motion, digital rights, and anti-disinformation efforts, in keeping with studies from TASS and different worldwide information sources.

The European Commission issued the €120 million fine on December 5, 2025, marking the primary non-compliance choice beneath the Digital Providers Act. The penalty addressed three distinct violations: misleading design of the platform’s blue checkmark verification system, insufficient transparency in its promoting repository, and failure to supply researchers with entry to public information.

The termination choice represents a dramatic reversal of the everyday platform-regulator relationship, the place know-how firms sometimes face enforcement actions from authorities our bodies slightly than taking punitive motion in opposition to them. X’s transfer demonstrates the platform’s willingness to prioritize what it characterizes as equal enforcement of platform guidelines over sustaining relationships with regulatory authorities.

Bier’s accusation facilities on the Fee’s use of X’s promoting system to advertise the advantageous announcement itself. In keeping with his assertion, the Fee accessed a dormant promoting account and used options of the Advert Composer instrument to create a put up designed to seem as video content material, a format that sometimes receives greater engagement and attain on the platform.

The acknowledgment that X’s Advert Composer comprises performance permitting advertisers to create deceptive content material shows raises questions on platform design accountability. The Fee’s advantageous particularly focused misleading design practices, with Govt Vice-President Henna Virkkunen stating that “deceiving customers with blue checkmarks” violated DSA transparency necessities. X’s personal admission that its promoting instruments allow misleading formatting seems to validate issues about platform design selections that mislead customers.

The timing of the account termination, occurring simply 48 hours after the advantageous announcement, suggests a deliberate response to the regulatory motion. X has not issued formal statements explaining the precise technical violation the Fee allegedly dedicated, nor has the corporate clarified whether or not it plans to change the Advert Composer instrument to stop future exploitation of the misleading format functionality.

The Digital Providers Act advantageous itself addressed a number of transparency shortcomings. In keeping with the Fee’s December 5 press launch, X’s blue checkmark system deceives customers by permitting anybody to buy verified standing with out significant id affirmation. “On X, anybody pays to acquire the ‘verified’ standing with out the corporate meaningfully verifying who’s behind the account, making it troublesome for customers to evaluate the authenticity of accounts and content material they have interaction with,” the Fee said.

The regulatory physique additionally cited insufficient promoting repository transparency, noting that X’s database lacks enough particulars about advertiser identities and focusing on standards. Moreover, the Fee discovered that X’s phrases of service impose pointless boundaries stopping eligible researchers from accessing publicly obtainable platform information by means of scraping strategies.

The €120 million penalty breaks down into three elements: €45 million for the blue checkmark violation, €40 million for researcher information entry restrictions, and €35 million for promoting repository deficiencies, in keeping with Fee officers cited by Euronews. The advantageous represents the primary of doubtless a number of Digital Providers Act enforcement actions in opposition to X, with two further investigations ongoing concerning unlawful content material moderation and algorithmic suggestion methods.

U.S. diplomatic officers reacted sharply to each the advantageous and the next account termination. U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Andrew Puzder characterised the advantageous as “extreme” and “the results of EU regulatory overreach focusing on American innovation” on December 6, in keeping with the Fee choice documentation.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio escalated the rhetoric additional, posting on X that “The European Fee’s $140 million advantageous is not simply an assault on @X, it is an assault on all American tech platforms and the American folks by international governments,” in keeping with Fortune. Elon Musk subsequently agreed with Rubio’s characterization.

The battle happens amid broader tensions between main know-how platforms and European regulators. Google faces a €2.95 billion fine for promoting know-how violations imposed by the Fee in September 2025. Meta challenged a Commission decision on Digital Markets Act compliance in July 2025, whereas a number of platforms together with Google and Meta withdrew entirely from European Union political promoting markets in 2025 citing regulatory complexity.

For the digital promoting business, the account termination raises questions on platform accountability mechanisms and the boundaries of regulatory enforcement. Promoting platforms sometimes keep phrases of service that prohibit particular content material or practices, with account suspension serving as the first enforcement mechanism for violations.

X’s admission that its Advert Composer instrument comprises exploitable options enabling misleading content material presentation highlights tensions between product design and platform coverage enforcement. The corporate’s characterization of the format as an “exploit” suggests unintended performance, but the characteristic apparently remained obtainable to advertisers regardless of its potential to mislead customers about content material kind.

Digital promoting requirements typically require clear labeling of content material sorts to stop person confusion. Video content material sometimes instructions greater engagement charges and premium promoting pricing in comparison with static or text-based codecs, creating monetary incentives for advertisers to misrepresent content material presentation. X’s acknowledgment that its instruments allow such misrepresentation with out correct safeguards raises questions on platform design priorities.

The European Fee has not publicly responded to the account termination as of December 7, 2025. The regulatory physique faces a choice about whether or not to escalate the battle additional, probably by means of further Digital Providers Act enforcement actions, or to hunt various channels for speaking with European customers on X.

X maintains that the Advert Composer exploit violated platform insurance policies, although the corporate has not specified which specific coverage the Fee breached or whether or not the misleading advert format functionality has been disabled for different advertisers. The platform’s promoting insurance policies prohibit misleading content material, manipulated media, and makes an attempt to artificially inflate engagement metrics, amongst different restrictions.

The obvious availability of advert codecs that may deceive customers contradicts X’s said coverage prohibitions in opposition to misleading content material. Platforms sometimes bear duty for designing promoting instruments that adjust to their very own said insurance policies, slightly than providing performance that permits coverage violations after which penalizing advertisers who make the most of obtainable options.

The Fee’s promoting account had remained dormant since 2021, in keeping with Bier’s assertion, suggesting the regulatory physique had not actively used X’s paid promotion options for a number of years earlier than accessing the account to advertise the advantageous announcement.

U.S. political figures have framed the dispute as a part of broader commerce tensions between the US and European Union. President Donald Trump’s administration has criticized European digital laws as protectionist measures focusing on American know-how firms, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick characterizing the Digital Providers Act as “abroad extortion,” in keeping with studies cited by a number of information sources.

The account termination follows a sample of X taking more and more confrontational positions towards regulatory authorities. The platform withdrew from the EU’s voluntary Code of Conduct on Disinformation in Could 2023, citing disagreements with necessary third-party fact-checking necessities. The Fee opened Digital Providers Act investigations into X lower than two months after the platform’s DSA obligations turned legally binding.

Govt Vice-President Henna Virkkunen said within the December 5 announcement: “Deceiving customers with blue checkmarks, obscuring data on advertisements and shutting out researchers don’t have any place on-line within the EU. The DSA protects customers,” in keeping with the Fee’s press launch.

The platform has 60 working days to tell the Fee of measures addressing the misleading blue checkmark utilization, and 90 working days to submit motion plans for remedying promoting repository and researcher entry violations. Failure to adjust to the non-compliance choice might set off periodic penalty funds, in keeping with the Fee’s enforcement framework.

For promoting know-how professionals, the dispute highlights rising friction between platform governance mechanisms and regulatory oversight. Platforms more and more face calls for for content material moderation, transparency, and information entry from a number of jurisdictions with divergent necessities, creating operational challenges for firms working globally.

The acknowledgment that X’s promoting instruments allow misleading content material presentation might strengthen the Fee’s place in ongoing DSA enforcement proceedings. Platform design selections that facilitate person deception straight contradict transparency necessities beneath European digital laws, probably supporting arguments for extra stringent oversight or design modifications.

The Digital Providers Act applies to Very Massive On-line Platforms with greater than 45 million month-to-month customers within the European Union, representing 10 % of the bloc’s inhabitants. X qualifies beneath this threshold, subjecting the platform to enhanced transparency obligations and potential fines reaching 6 % of world annual turnover for severe violations.

The Fee’s advantageous represents lower than 1 % of the utmost penalty X may face beneath DSA provisions, suggesting potential for considerably bigger enforcement actions if the platform fails to deal with the recognized violations or commits further infractions. The existence of promoting codecs able to deceiving customers about content material kind might issue into future compliance assessments.

Timeline

Abstract

Who: X head of product Nikita Bier terminated the European Fee’s promoting account, affecting the regulatory physique’s capacity to run paid promotions on the platform. The European Fee had imposed the €120 million advantageous beneath Govt Vice-President Henna Virkkunen’s authority. U.S. diplomatic officers together with Ambassador Andrew Puzder and Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized the enforcement motion.

What: X completely suspended the European Fee’s promoting account, stopping the regulatory physique from working paid ads on the platform. The termination got here after X accused the Fee of exploiting the Advert Composer instrument to create misleading video-like content material that artificially elevated attain. Bier’s assertion acknowledged X presents promoting codecs able to deceiving customers about content material kind, characterizing these options as “exploits” obtainable by means of the Advert Composer instrument. The motion adopted the Fee’s €120 million Digital Providers Act advantageous for 3 violations: misleading blue checkmark design, insufficient promoting repository transparency, and blocking researcher information entry.

When: X introduced the account termination on December 7, 2025, two days after the European Fee issued the €120 million advantageous on December 5, 2025. The advantageous adopted a two-year investigation that started with formal proceedings opened December 18, 2023, and preliminary findings adopted July 12, 2024.

The place: The enforcement actions have an effect on X’s operations throughout the 27 European Union member states, the place the platform has greater than 45 million month-to-month customers qualifying it as a Very Massive On-line Platform beneath Digital Providers Act laws. The account termination prevents the European Fee from working ads seen to customers in any geographic location by means of X’s platform.

Why: X justified the account termination by claiming the European Fee violated platform insurance policies by accessing a dormant promoting account to use options within the Advert Composer instrument that allow misleading content material presentation. The corporate’s acknowledgment that its promoting instruments comprise performance permitting customers to deceive others about content material format creates a contradiction with the platform’s said insurance policies in opposition to misleading content material, whereas additionally validating regulatory issues about misleading design practices cited within the €120 million advantageous. The motion represents X’s said dedication to equal enforcement of platform guidelines no matter account holder standing, whereas additionally serving as obvious retaliation for the regulatory penalty.