The European Commission on Friday issued Elon Musk's social media platform X a fine of $140 million for violating the Digital Services Act by lacking advertising transparency and deceiving users with its blue checkmark verification system.

The commission, which is the European Union's executive arm, also accused X of failing to provide researchers with access to public data, according to The Hill news outlet.

The social media platform’s verification system, which allows users to pay for a checkmark, makes it difficult for people to judge the authenticity of accounts and violates the DSA’s prohibition on deceptive design, according to the commission.

Also, X’s ad repository had design features that undermined its effectiveness and lacked key information about advertisements on the site, the commission found. It also noted that researchers are blocked from independently accessing data in violation of the DSA.

“Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU,” Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said in a statement.

“The DSA protects users,” Virkkunen continued. “The DSA gives researchers the way to uncover potential threats. The DSA restores trust in the online environment. With the DSA’s first non-compliance decision, we are holding X responsible for undermining users’ rights and evading accountability.”

The EU began its investigation into X in December 2023, examining the social media platform’s design and advertising practices in addition to its handling of illegal content and information manipulation. The commission's probe into the latter issues is ongoing, it noted Friday.

Musk reposted Secretary of State Marco Rubio's post on X on Friday regarding the fine, in which the former senator wrote, "The European Commission’s $140 million 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."

"Absolutely," Musk wrote in his repost.

Musk also shared Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr's post on X about the fine, which reads, "Once again, Europe is fining a successful U.S. tech company for being a successful U.S. tech company. Europe is taxing Americans to subsidize a continent held back by Europe’s own suffocating regulations."