US backs Elon Musk's bid to overturn €120m EU fine against X

ByLaura Cress Technology reporter.

Key points

• The US administration is seeking to join Elon Musk's legal challenge to overturn a €120m (£105m) EU fine against X over its blue tick badges.
• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had criticised the EU regulator, accusing it of attacking and censoring US firms.
• In a press briefing on Friday, external, European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier remarked it was "ready to defend" its position in court.
• The action marked the Commission's first official non-compliance decision under the Digital Services Act (DSA), one of two mandatory rulebooks governing online platforms in the EU.
• Musk, who spent millions helping elect Donald Trump and other Republicans, has previously asserted EU tech regulation "inhibits progress" for businesses.

In practice, the US administration is seeking to join Elon Musk's legal challenge to overturn a €120m (£105m) EU fine against X over its blue tick badges.

Since it is not "meaningfully verifying" who is behind the account, in December 2025, the European Commission remarked the platform "deceives users" by allowing residents to pay for a blue verified check mark.

But US Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate remarked on Thursday that the commission had "inappropriately attempted" to expand its reach to American businesses outside its control.

Notably, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed an application, external with the EU's General Court in backing of Musk's and X's attempts to dismiss the case.

It claims that under a section of law in the Statute of the Court of Justice of the EU, a state may intervene in disputes before the court if it "can establish an interest in the result of the case to the court".

Meanwhile, the DOJ remarked the US "has a clear interest" in ensuring any decision by the commission was applied consistently with "how territorial jurisdiction is generally understood in international law".

It additionally wants to produce sure it would not "otherwise prejudice" US-headquartered digital services that "contribute significantly" to its economy.

He continued that the commission had an "solid case" at its disposal, due to the alleged breach of its Digital Services Act.

Along with its employ of blue ticks, EU regulators had accused X of failing to provide transparency around its adverts and denying researchers access to public data.

Henna Virkkunen, the regulator's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, remarked at the time of the fine's problem it was "holding X responsible for undermining users' rights and evading accountability".

"Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU, " she remarked.

"The European Commission's fine isn't just an attack on X, it's an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments, " Rubio wrote in a post on X. "The days of censoring Americans online are over." His remarks were reposted by Musk. This person continued "absolutely".

Meanwhile, the European Commission denied targeting any specific nationality, stating it is simply protecting its digital and democratic standards to maintain its role as a global benchmark.

Notably, the action marked the Commission's first official non-compliance decision under the Digital Services Act (DSA), one of two mandatory rulebooks governing online platforms in the EU.

Nevertheless, the EU is additionally conducting a number of other investigations into the platform, including one into its integrated AI assistant Grok over worries it was applied to create sexualised images of real residents.

In short, US backs Elon Musk' s bid to overturn €120m EU fine against X is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.