X shuts down European Commission ad account after €120M fine announcement

X has terminated the European Commission's ad account after Brussels used it to post a video announcing the platform's €120 million Digital Services Act (DSA) fine – which was in fact just a link to the press release.

Elon Musk's social media mouthpiece received the first ever DSA fine last week: a €120 million penalty for breaching rules on ad transparency, data access for researchers, and the revamped blue checkmark system.

Head of product Nikita Bier, who recently unveiled X's controversial profile location functionality, decried the "irony" of the EC's announcement, saying: "You logged into your dormant ad account to take advantage of an exploit in our Ad Composer — to post a link that deceives users into thinking it's a video and to artificially increase its reach."

According to Bier, this is against the rules. "X believes everyone should have an equal voice on our ...