X has surged in popularity after the European Union announced last week that it had fined the social media platform for violating transparency rules and other regulations.
Elon Musk, who purchased X in 2022, has celebrated X’s surging popularity and mocked the European Union’s attempts to punish the free speech platform. Musk has touted rankings that show X has become the most downloaded app across Europe since the EU announced its action against Musk’s platform.
Now number 1 in every EU country! https://t.co/tQOpiPVRkw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 7, 2025
“X is seeing record-breaking downloads in many countries in Europe,” Musk posted on Sunday.
“The European Union is not DEMOcracy–rule of the people–but rather BUREAUcracy–rule of the unelected bureaucrat!” Musk added in a post several minutes later.
The European Commission, the main governing body of the European Union, announced on Friday that it had fined X the equivalent of about $140 million for “non-compliance with transparency obligations under the [Digital Services Act].”
The commission said that X’s “blue checkmark” stamp on accounts, which is given to those accounts that pay for verification, is deceptive. The commission also accused X of illegally blocking researchers and governments from accessing parts of its data.
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In a response from X’s head of product, Nikita Bier accused the commission of hypocrisy, exploiting a bug in X’s platform for advertisements to extend the reach of the commission’s video announcing its action against X. Bier said that X has since cut off the commission’s access to X’s Ad Composer tool for using it to deceive users.
“The irony of your announcement: 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,” Bier posted. “As you may be aware, X believes everyone should have an equal voice on our platform. However, it seems you believe that the rules should not apply to your account. Your ad account has been terminated.”
Bier’s response was reposted by Musk.
The commission’s action against Musk has riled top officials in the Trump administration, deepening a divide between the United States and Europe over regulation and speech.
“The European Commission’s $140 million fine isn’t just an attack on [X], it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments. The days of censoring Americans online are over,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage,” said Vice President JD Vance a day before the fine was announced.