The Commission hasn’t yet imposed any of its potential DSA penalties. Fines could go as high as 6 percent of global yearly revenue, and regulators could order firms in breach to take action to stop any problems. Officials can also put a company on watch via “an enhanced supervision period to ensure compliance,” and issue daily fines until they obey.

Boosting the algorithm

The EU’s digital enforcers have already said their focus is on whether Musk bends the X algorithm in his favor, such as by boosting his content or potentially by giving the AfD leader a larger platform and downgrading content from her rivals. Doing so would be considered an unfair advantage and could be seen as a breach of EU social media law.

“How much is [it] or will it be boosted? This is what the Commission will be looking at,” Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told reporters on Monday.

The Commission will also be watching closely to see how X respects the DSA, a law that orders platforms to take down illegal content and act against disinformation, and that prompts them to map and deal with threats to elections and public discourse.

X is such a large platform that it’s under the direct supervision of the EU’s DG CONNECT digital department. The social media platform was the first target of the DSA in December 2023, with a probe that escalated to charges in July for misleading users, lacking transparency, and failing to share some public data.

Regnier told POLITICO that the Commission’s DSA enforcement team could decide to widen the ongoing probe and send new requests to access information based on how the algorithm handled the AfD livestream.