US backs Elon Musk's bid to overturn €120m EU fine against X
The EU had said X "deceives users" by selling blue ticks without "meaningfully verifying" accounts.
US supports Elon Musk’s effort to overturn €120m EU penalty against X
The US government is trying to join Elon Musk’s legal bid to overturn a €120m (£105m) EU fine imposed on X over its blue tick badges.
In December 2025, the European Commission said the platform "deceives users" by letting people pay for a blue verified check mark, because it is not "meaningfully verifying" who is behind the account.
But US Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate said on Thursday that the Commission had "inappropriately attempted" to extend its authority to American companies beyond its control.
Musk, who spent millions helping elect Donald Trump and other Republicans, has previously said EU tech regulation "inhibits progress" for companies.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed an application, external with the EU's General Court in support of Musk's and X's efforts to have the case dismissed.
It argues that under a section of law in the Statute of the Court of Justice of the EU, a state may intervene in cases before the court if it "can establish an interest in the result of the case to the court".
The DOJ said the US "has a clear interest" in ensuring any Commission decision was applied consistently with "how territorial jurisdiction is generally understood in international law".
It also wants to ensure it would not "otherwise prejudice" US-headquartered digital services that "contribute significantly" to its economy.
The European Commission has been contacted for comment.
Alongside its blue tick system, EU regulators accused X of failing to provide transparency about its adverts and of denying researchers access to public data.
Henna Virkkunen, the regulator's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, said when the fine was issued that 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 said.
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.
"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."
Musk reposted his remarks and added "absolutely".
The European Commission denied targeting any particular nationality, saying it is simply protecting its digital and democratic standards to preserve its role as a global benchmark.
The move was 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.
However, the EU is also carrying out several other investigations into the platform, including one into its integrated AI assistant Grok over concerns it was used to generate sexualised images of real people.