The EU accepts X’s plan following the 120 million fine

Following the €120 million fine imposed in December 2025, the European Commission has accepted the action plan submitted by X to comply with the transparency and data access obligations for researchers set out in the Digital Services Act (DSA).

Elon Musk’s social media platform will have six months to implement the measures, which include enhancing the ad archive, introducing new search functions, providing API access and making data available free of charge to researchers. “This is an important step in the right direction,” commented a Commission spokesperson.

“The measures approved,” explained the spokesperson, “will enable researchers, civil society and the general public to gain greater transparency regarding X’s systems and their impact on users.”

As regards the advertising register, X has undertaken to introduce new search filters based, among other things, on the content and targeting criteria of the adverts; to display the results directly within the database interface rather than via Excel files; to reduce search response times; to publish the full content of the adverts and their destination web addresses; and to make the register accessible via APIs as well.

With regard to access to data for research, the platform must improve the system for assessing requests submitted by researchers, guarantee free access to those entitled to it, significantly reduce authorisation times and amend the terms of use to clarify that authorised researchers are not contractually prohibited from scraping publicly available data.