Following a $140 million fine for social platform X under the Digital Services Act (DSA), Musk has responded with more than just complaints about the EU’s enforcement tactics. Openly questioning the legitimacy of the European Union, he has now called for its abolition and a return of sovereign powers to member states.
From Musk’s perspective, along with many European conservatives, the current conflict reflects a deeper democratic deficit: an unelected bureaucratic super-state making sweeping decisions that impact commerce, speech, and national sovereignty without sufficient accountability.
Sceptics of Brussels, including Hungarian leader Victor Orban, have openly supported Musk’s stance. Orban posted on social media about “Brusselian overlords” who “cannot win the debate”, instead resorting to fines.
What Started It All?
On 5 December, the European Commission (EC) imposed a €120 million ($140 million) fine on X – the first major penalty under the Digital Services Act for a large social media platform.
According to the EC, X violated multiple transparency obligations:
- The “blue tick” verification system on X became misleading – after X’s takeover, the blue check no longer guaranteed identity verification but could be bought via subscription, which the EC regarded as a “deceptive design”
- X failed to provide a proper public register of advertisers under ads transparency rules, making it harder for users or regulators to trace who was paying for what ads or why certain content was targeted at certain users
- X also denied researchers adequate access to public data (such as views and like counts) which the DSA requires, undermining oversight and research into platform effects
The fine is divided roughly as: €45 million for the misleading verification badge, €35 million for ad transparency failures, and €40 million for obstructing researcher access. Under the DSA, the maximum possible fine is up to 6% of global revenue, meaning the total fine is only a partial enforcement for the EU. But symbolically, it represents a watershed moment showing that they are willing to use the law in force.
Compliance or Transatlantic Political Overreach?
The fine itself was not treated by its critics as a regulatory affair, but rather a political attack on transatlantic free speech and national sovereignty.
Musk responded on X bluntly and publicly. Under the EC announcement, he simply wrote “Bullsh–”.
Shortly after, he escalated: “The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people”, indicating the fine is not an enforcement of rules, but evidence that the EU is a “tyrannical unelected bureaucracy”,
“The European Union is not a DEMOcracy – rule of the people – but rather BUREAUcracy – rule of the unelected bureaucrat!”
Anti-Brussels sentiment across parts of Europe and the US spread, transforming a regulatory dispute into a broader ideological confrontation.
The US Ambassador to the EU posted, “Today’s excessive €120M fine is the result of EU regulatory overreach targeting American innovation. The Trump Administration has been clear: we oppose censorship and will challenge burdensome regulations that target US companies abroad”.
And the US Secretary of State posted “The European Commission’s $140 million attack isn’t just an attack on X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments. The days of censoring Americans online are over.”
Free Speech in Europe vs America
The simple origin of the current dispute lies in what is essentially an irreconcilable vision of what free speech really is. The US, sticking to its constitutional tradition, protects public expression almost without limitation, assuming that democracy can only succeed if ideas can compete on equal footing. Europe, however, tries to “balance” free speech with protection against harm, reputational damage, and the so-called “collective dignity”.
The present tension transcends technology and reaches into the political arena. Numerous European conservative leaders – such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Germany’s Alice Weidel – have long since denounced the Union as having drifted away from its original purpose. Supposed to target economic cooperation, subsidiarity, and the defence of national sovereignty, the EU’s current form is critiqued to be an entity that legislates without limits and increasingly interferes with the cultural, identity and social spheres of society. Musk, then, is not an outlier – he’s just voicing what millions of Europeans already think.
How the Left Sees Musk
Liberal, socialist and green MEPs have labelled Musk a “danger to European democracy”. Pro-Brussels parties say his statements are an intolerable offence. For the European left, it’s understood that the EU is in fact not just a political union, but rather an ideological architecture enabling values such as multiculturalism, expansive regulation, supranational governance and mandatory ecological transition to rise above national agendas.
Why It Matters Beyond Political Affiliation
The implications of this clash reach far beyond political allegiance, and the fundamental effect on social media users does not depend on whether they support Musk or the EU.
Firstly, the DSA’s enforcement changes how platforms must operate across the European continent. This shapes what users see, how information circulates, and how digital identities are verified. The dispute over the blue tick may appear trivial at first glance, but really signals a larger shift: governments are beginning to codify what constitutes acceptable online design, transparency and speech architecture rather than just policing illegal content.
Secondly, the confrontation highlights a growing philosophical divide over who owns the digital public spaces we use every day. If platforms must adapt themselves to supranational conditions – especially those implemented by unelected officials that the public cannot change – users may experience a more controlled, curated online environment. Without oversight, however, platforms may become vulnerable to manipulation, opaque algorithms, and corporate decision-makers avoiding accountability. Either direction fundamentally alters how citizens communicate, organise themselves politically, and participate in civic life online.
Thirdly, the precedent set here will affect all future regulation. From AI to misinformation to election-year content control, the outcome of the Musk-EU conflict will define the future balance between state authority, corporate autonomy, and individual digital freedoms. Every user, regardless of ideology, will be affected by the outcome.
Final Thought
The X fine and Musk’s explosive response may have just exposed a deeper fissure in Europe’s political fabric – one that millions argue has been felt for years, but rarely confronted so openly. Behind the regulatory language and official press release lies an unresolved question: who should govern a digital world?
The EU argues that democratic societies must protect themselves through predictable, rules-based oversight. Musk and his supporters argue that unchecked bureaucratic power threatens free expression and national sovereignty. Both perspectives identify real dangers, and both seek legitimacy. Can they co-exist without compromise?
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Categories: World News
Good for Musk, right with him on that. I hope he ignored the fine – as he says, unelected and unaccountable. Little twerps. How dare there!
The day the EUSSR collapses i shall rejoice. Or is it the EUNSDAP? Either way, I want it gone. If this is warfare then Musk should target the EU scum who are doing it and chuck them off X at the very least. Maybe the systems of the EUSSR can be shut down…
I aways thought that it would be a nation-state such as Hungary or UK (for example) that would take-on the EU and at the least make their under-pinnings look a bit Fascistic, but it turns-out to be an entrepeneur, a bilionaire called Elon that would be the one to call the spade a spade. It’s as if no-one dared speak the truth out loud, on the global-stage,but Musk cannot be silenced with financial penalties, and will not be any time soon. I think we’re at the starting line of the ending of the non-democratic system of supra-national control which has nothing to do with safe-guarding democracy, as they describe their actions with regard to X and freedom of speech- how could a non-democratic behemoth do anything that favours either freedom of speech or democracy? They have accomplished what the Austrain Corporal could not, but they didn’t employ tanks, marching armies or tanks to accomplish the mustachiode-Austrian’s’s ends. Just deception and duplicity