It takes some major cojones to take on the might of Elon Musk, and although the world's richest man has a cool $496.6 billion net worth at the time of writing, some people are here to try and show that money can't buy you out of trouble.
Having seen his bank balance climb since he sold PayPal to eBay in 2002, Elon Musk's portfolio has also added a slew of other business ventures, including SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company, Neuralink, OpenAI (formerly), and more.
One of his most divisive acquisitions was the October 2022 purchase of Twitter, and after shelling out a cool $44 billion, there are claims that the tech mogul has caused its worth to tumble as he's rebranded it in his own vision as X.
Even ex-wife Grimes has referred to the social media platform as 'poison', as many have left X behind for the likes of Bluesky. Alongside changes to the blue tick verifications, Musk has championed X as a place of free speech where concerned users are worried they can't report abuse, harassment, and incitement to violence.
Advert
Despite numerous calls for change, Musk has continued reshaping X how he wants it, which has led to some pretty costly lawsuits from fired CEOs and dismissed employees harking back to the Twitter days.
Adding to Mr. Musk's mounting pile of lawsuits from all his ventures, the European Commission has just slapped X with a €120 million ($139 million) fine amid claims the social media giant breached European Union digital laws.
Alongside allegations that X became 'deceptive' over blue tick verification, there are also misleading advertising concerns, and an apparent failure to hand over data to keep an eye on what's being pushed to users.
As you can imagine, Musk isn't impressed with these sanctions, using his own platform to launch a scathing response. Posting on X, Musk called out the "EU woke Stasi commissars" and vowed action against the 'individuals' responsible.
Taking to X, the billionaire fumed: "The 'EU' imposed this crazy fine not just on [X], but also on me personally, which is even more insane!
“Therefore, it would seem appropriate to apply our response not just to the EU, but also to the individuals who took this action against me."
As reported by Politico, the important part to note is that the action is aimed at Musk himself, with a Commission spokesperson highlighting three entities of X Holdings Companies, xAI, and Elon Musk "at the top." Thomas Regnier reiterated that the $140 million fine is “for a breach committed by X” but it's "addressed to the entire corporate structure."
A clearly vexed Musk continued, "The EU woke Stasi commissars are about to understand the full meaning of the 'Streisand Effect'." - referring to when Barbra Streisand tried to keep her Malibu house a secret but ended up drawing more attention to it.
There have already been rumblings from the White House, with Vice President JD Vance saying: "The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio added on X that the fine “isn’t just an attack on [X], it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments. The days of censoring Americans online are over."
The decision was largely met with praise by EU officials, although far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders concluded: "Nobody elected you. You represent no one. You are a totalitarian institution and can’t even spell the words freedom of speech. We should not accept the fining of [X], but abolish the [Commission]."
The idea was echoed by Musk, who, in a separate post, simply wrote: "The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people."