US Government Backs Musk and X in Fight Against $137 Million EU Fine

The United States government is trying to help Elon Musk and his platform X escape a $137 million fine imposed by the European Union in December. The Department of Justice, working with the Department of State, has filed an application to support Musk's legal challenge seeking to annul the fine at the EU's General Court in Luxembourg. The court will now rule on whether the US is entitled to intervene in the case.

Washington argues its involvement is needed to protect American companies. The fine is significant because it marks the EU's first sanction under the Digital Services Act, legislation requiring online platforms to do more to combat illegal and harmful content. Many of the largest platforms affected by the law, including Meta's Facebook and Instagram, Google's YouTube, and Microsoft's LinkedIn, are US-headquartered and contribute substantially to the American economy.

Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department's Civil Division said the US would not tolerate what he called regulatory overreach by the European Commission aimed at controlling American engines of innovation and growth. The DOJ also warned the case carries broader implications for US-EU relations. The Digital Services Act has become a persistent point of friction, with President Donald Trump calling the EU's penalties "overseas extortion" and previously threatening tariffs against countries that implement digital regulation he considers discriminatory toward American tech. Vice President JD Vance has separately described the act's content moderation rules as "authoritarian censorship."

The European Commission fined X €120 million in December following a two-year investigation that found the platform breached transparency obligations. The Commission ruled it was deceptive for X to present blue-checkmark accounts as "verified" when the status is simply purchased. It also cited an inaccessible and incomplete advertising database and X's failure to give researchers access to public data needed to study risks on the platform. In July, the Commission accepted a plan from X to fix the data-access issues, giving the company six months to implement it.

Both Musk and X filed appeals in February, describing the EU investigation as incomplete and superficial and calling the Commission's interpretation of DSA obligations distorted. They also alleged they were denied proper rights of defense, suggesting prosecutorial bias. Musk has repeatedly complained about the financial and administrative burden of transparency rules, and in July criticized Australia's data-gathering powers tied to its under-16 social media ban as intrusive.