Elon Musk says European Commission offered X 'secret deal' to 'quietly' censor speech

WASHINGTON (AA) - Elon Musk, CEO of social media platform X, on Friday claimed that European Commission offered his platform an "illegal secret deal" to "quietly" censor speech after European Commission accused the platform of breaching EU digital laws.

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

"The other platforms accepted that deal. X did not," he further said.

Musk's statement came in response to European Commission that said that X is in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to "dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers".

The social media platform's blue tick policy negatively affects users' ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of accounts on the platform and the content they interact with, said the commission, as anyone can subscribe to get a blue tick, which supposedly indicates a “verified account.”

Moreover, it said, “X does not comply with the required transparency on advertising, as it does not provide a searchable and reliable advertisement repository.”

The commission warned that if its preliminary views are to be ultimately confirmed, X could face severe fines including up to 6% of its total worldwide annual turnover.