Le Chou is Europe's most dedicated source of news. Catch up weekly on the biggest headlines, all with an intentionally inaccurate and satirical streak.
*Le Chou is intended for purely satirical and entertainment purposes and does not reflect the views of The Brussels Times*
The European Commission has slapped Elon Musk’s X platform with a €120 million fine for “conning sad losers out of $8 per month” and generally taking advantage of society’s most desperate washouts.
X will have to pay €120 million in fines after the Commission found that the social media platform’s pay-for-clout Blue Check feature was “deceptive” and that its advertising library lacked transparency.
Under Twitter’s previous regime, a Blue Check mark was issued to accounts of actual interest and relevance. However, under Elon Musk’s leadership, that feature was removed so that anyone could pay to have the badge displayed next to their name.
It quickly became a social stigma, even dividing friendship groups, as X users who were willing to pay for a free website were subjected to mockery and even more online abuse than normal.
That is why the EU launched an inquiry, ultimately concluding that that Musk had “conned some of the biggest and saddest losers in our society out of $8 a month” and “made uninteresting people think that their opinions are actually valuable”.
X insisted that this was a fairer system and that posts created by Blue Check marks would be displayed more prominently on timelines by the algorithm. Paying $8, however, did not make the posts interesting, relevant, entertaining or in any way logical.
“The damage this has done to the fragile fabric of the online community cannot be measured. However, we’ve given it a shot and we think it’s around €120 million," said one official involved with the investigation.
Musk’s pet project will also have to explain why it has allowed advertisers such as “Hitler was actually alright PLC” and “Apartheid worked LTD” to display prominent messages on the platform.
United States President JD Vance told reporters that the EU should not concern itself with how the starved-of-attention and terminally-irrelevant in society spend their money and that banning fascist advertising is “unforgivable censorship”.
*Le Chou is intended for purely satirical and entertainment purposes and does not reflect the views of The Brussels Times*
