European Commission offered X a ‘secret’ deal for censorship, says Elon Musk

Billionaire Elon Musk has claimed the European Commission offered his social media platform X a secret deal to quietly censor speech after he accused X of violating the bloc’s digital laws.

“The European Commission offered X an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they wouldn’t fine us,” Musk wrote on X.

“The other platforms accepted this deal. X did not,” he said. “We look forward to a very public battle in court, so that European citizens can know the truth,” Musk later wrote.

Musk’s statement comes in response to the European Commission’s declaration earlier Friday that X is in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas related to “dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers.”

The commission warned that if its preliminary findings were upheld, X could face heavy fines.

The European Commission has strongly denied Musk’s allegations, with Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton saying: “There has never been – and there never will be – a ‘secret deal’. With anyone.”

“To be clear: It was *YOUR* team that asked the Commission to explain the settlement process and clarify our concerns. We did so in accordance with established regulatory procedures,” he said in response to Musk on X.

“It is up to you to decide whether you offer commitments or not. This is how the procedures of a state governed by the rule of law work. See you soon (in court or not),” he added.