Elon Musk has escalated his war with European regulators, calling for the complete abolition of the EU after Brussels slapped his social media platform X with a €120 million ($140 million) fine. The penalty marks the first major enforcement action under the Digital Services Act, with U.S. officials now backing Musk's defiant stance against what they're calling regulatory overreach.
The gloves are officially off between Elon Musk and European regulators. After the European Commission hit X with its biggest regulatory penalty yet - €120 million for what Brussels calls "deceptive" practices - Musk didn't just push back. He went nuclear, demanding the entire EU be dissolved.
"The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people," Musk posted on X Saturday, escalating what started as a Friday response of simply "Bulls---" to the Commission's announcement.
The fine itself represents a watershed moment for tech regulation in Europe. It's the first major enforcement action under the Digital Services Act, the EU's sweeping 2022 law designed to rein in big tech platforms. Brussels hit X for three main violations: misleading users with its blue checkmark system, failing to maintain a transparent advertising repository, and blocking researchers from accessing public data.
"With the DSA's first non-compliance decision, we are holding X responsible for undermining users' rights and evading accountability," said Henna Virkkunen, the Commission's executive vice president for tech sovereignty, when announcing the penalty Friday.
But what's really raising the stakes is the backing Musk's getting from Washington. The Trump administration has turned this into a full-scale diplomatic issue, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling the fine an "attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments" in a Friday post on X.
Andrew Puzder, the U.S. ambassador to the EU, went even further Saturday: "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."
The timing couldn't be more charged. This comes as Meta, Google, and other American tech giants face increasing regulatory pressure across Europe. The EU has been steadily tightening its grip on big tech through legislation like the DSA and the Digital Markets Act, creating what many Silicon Valley executives see as a hostile environment for innovation.
