Musk’s X will reportedly not be designated as a ‘gatekeeper’, that would have subjected it to onerous DMA obligations

Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) may escape one of the European Union’s tough tech laws, it has been reported.

Reuters, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter, reported on Thursday that X will not be designated as a gatekeeper under landmark EU tech rules known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

It was back in July 2022 when the European Parliament voted to adopt Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA) – landmark rules that impose significant regulatory burdens on large tech platforms.

DMA Gatekeepers

The ‘gatekeepers’ for the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which focuses on how platforms handle user data and moderation and it went into effect in August 2023, were revealed earlier in 2023.

But in September 2023 the European Commission designated 22 services of six major tech companies as “DMA gatekeepers” of online services.

The DMA requires gatekeepers to make their messaging apps interact with rivals, let users decide which apps to pre-install on their devices, and are not allowed to favour their own services over rivals.

Companies face possible fines of up to 10 percent of annual global turnover for DMA violations and 6 percent for contravening the DSA.

Under the DMA companies with more than 45 million monthly active users and a market capitalisation of 75 billion euros ($82 billion) are considered gatekeepers providing a core platform service.

Decision looming

Elon Musk’s X was not named as a DMA gatekeeper at that time, but the European Commission opened an investigation into X in May 2024.

However Twitter (X) had been designated as a DSA gatekeeper earlier in 2023.

Now sources have told Reuters that a decision regarding its DMA gatekeeper status, is expected to be announced next week.

The EU competition enforcer declined to comment, Reuters reported.

X had previously told the Commission that even though it met the criterion regarding the number of users to be classified as a gatekeeper, it does not qualify for the other criterion as an important gateway between businesses and consumers.

DSA violations

But X has already been pinged under the European Union’s DSA.

In July the European Commission preliminary concluded that under the Digital Services Act (DSA), X did not comply with the DSA in key transparency areas.

The European Union has previously named Twitter as being the largest spreader of Russian lies and propaganda, out of all large social media platforms.

The European Commission investigation into X began in December 2023 over its suspected failure to fight against disinformation and content manipulation.

The EU probe would also look into whether X’s blue checks for paying subscribers constitutes a “deceptive” user interface design.

It comes after the European Commission in February 2023 had criticised Twitter’s compliance with the EU’s voluntary code of practice on disinformation, saying its efforts were falling short of those of its peers.

In August 2023 X had reorganised the reporting structure of its trust and safety team, to report to both owner Elon Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino.