US government seeks to join Elon Musk in challenge against EU's fine on X

The US government said on Thursday it had ‌formally sought to join a legal challenge filed by billionaire Elon Musk to dismiss a fine of €120 million ($136.51 million) by the European Union against his social media platform X. EU tech regulators fined X late last year for ‌breaching online content rules, the first sanction under a landmark legislation that has drawn criticism from Washington.

The ‌US Department of Justice said it had filed an application with the EU's General Court in support of X's effort to annul the case. The EU sanction against X followed a two-year-long investigation under the bloc's Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires online platforms to ⁠do more ​to tackle illegal and harmful ⁠content.

"The European Commission inappropriately attempted to expand its regulatory authority to reach American companies not present or operating within its jurisdiction," Assistant ⁠Attorney General Brett Shumate of the US Justice Department's civil division said. Europe's crackdown on Big Tech to ensure smaller rivals ​can compete and consumers have more choice has been criticised by the administration of US President Donald ⁠Trump, which alleges it singles out American companies.

The European Commission, the EU's executive, has said its laws do not target any nationality ⁠and ​that it is merely defending its digital and democratic standards, which it says serve as the benchmark for the rest of the world. Musk, who has financially backed candidates from Trump's Republican Party in elections and ⁠supported Trump himself in the last election, has said the EU's tech regulations stall technological progress.

Since Musk's purchase ⁠of X, then known ⁠as Twitter, in 2022, rights advocates and experts have been widely critical of the platform over what they say is increased hate speech, misinformation and nonconsensual sexually explicit ‌content. ($1 = 0.8790 ‌euros)