US seeks to join Elon Musk’s legal challenge against EU fine for X

The US government has applied to join Elon Musk’s legal battle against a €120 million fine levied by the European Commission against X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. The move transforms what started as a corporate compliance dispute into something closer to an international diplomatic incident. The fine, imposed on December 5, 2025, was the first non-compliance penalty issued under the EU’s Digital Services Act against a very large online platform. The Commission’s case centers on X’s paid blue verification checkmark, which regulators argued misled users, along with alleged shortcomings in advertising transparency and researcher access to platform data. How Washington entered the fight X filed its appeal against the fine on February 16, 2026, with Musk and associated entities named in the filings alongside the company itself. The US formalized its intervention roughly seven months later, lodging its application to join the challenge on September 24, 2026. Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate framed the US position around jurisdiction: the European Commission, in Washington’s view, overstepped by targeting American companies and their operations. The argum...