The European Union hit Elon Musk’s X with a 120-million-euro ($140-million) fine Friday for breaking its digital rules, sparking an angry reaction from Washington.The high-profile probe into the social media platform was seen as a test of the EU’s resolve to police Big Tech. Even before the penalty was made public, US Vice President JD Vance warned against “attacking” US firms through “censorship”.Hours after Brussels announced the fine, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined the attack.”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,” Rubio posted on X.”The days of censoring Americans online are over.”This was the first fine imposed by the European Commission under its Digital Services Act (DSA) on content.X was guilty of breaching the DSA’s transparency obligation, said a Commission statement.The breaches include the deceptive design of its “blue checkmark” for supposedly verified accounts, and its failure to provide access to public data for researchers, it added.”This decision is about the transparency of X” and “nothing to do with censorship,” the bloc’s technology commissioner Henna Virkkunen told reporters — pushing back against Washington’s line of attack.Posting on X on Thursday, Vance had told the EU it “should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage” — to which Musk replied “Much appreciated”.- ‘Deception’ -Musk’s platform — targeted by the EU’s first formal DSA investigation in December 2023 — was found to have breached its rules on several counts in July 2024.The EU found that changes made to the platform’s checkmark system after Musk took over in 2022 meant that “anyone can pay” to obtain a badge of authenticity — without X “meaningfully verifying who is behind the account”.”This deception exposes users to scams, including impersonation frauds, as well as other forms of manipulation by malicious actors,” said the Commission statement.X had also failed to be sufficiently transparent about its advertising and to give researchers access to public data in line with DSA rules, it added.X remains under investigation over tackling the spread of illegal content and information manipulation. The first part of the X probe had appeared to stall since last year — with no movement on imposing a fine.Weighing on the EU’s mind was the picture in the United States — starkly different from 2023 — after Trump returned as president this year with Musk by his side.While the pair later fell out, the tycoon has since reappeared in White House circles, and Brussels has had to contend with the prospect that any fine on X would fan tensions with Trump.- ‘Words to action’ -The DSA gives the EU power to fine companies as much as six percent of their global annual revenue — and in the case of X the bloc could have based itself on Musk’s entire business empire, including Tesla.Brussels settled on what is arguably a moderate sum relative to X’s clout — but Virkkunen told reporters it was “proportionate” to the violations at stake.”We are not here to impose the highest fines,” said the tech chief.”We are here to make sure that our digital legislation is enforced,” she added. “If you comply with our rules, you don’t get a fine — and it’s as simple as that.”She also emphasised that this was one part of a “very broad investigation” into X, which was ongoing.The Center for Countering Digital Hate advocacy group said the EU move “sends a message that no tech platform is above the laws all corporations have to abide by”.Washington has made plain its distaste for EU tech laws. A new national security strategy released Friday by Trump’s administration urges Europe to “abandon its failed focus on regulatory suffocation”.France’s digital affairs minister Anne Le Henanff hailed the EU’s “historic” decision. “By sanctioning X, Europe shows it is capable of moving from words to action,” she said.Germany’s digital minister Karsten Wildberger said the bloc’s digital rules “apply to everyone, no matter where they come from”.At the same time as the X fine, the Commission announced it had accepted commitments from TikTok to address concerns over its advertising system.But the Chinese-owned platform remains under DSA investigation over other issues.

An advisory panel appointed by the Trump administration’s vaccine-skeptic health secretary voted Friday to stop recommending that all newborns in the United States receive a hepatitis B vaccine.The move to end the three-decade-old recommendation is the panel’s latest contentious decision overturning long-standing medical advice since its overhaul by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has spent decades spreading anti-vaccine rhetoric.US health authorities previously recommended all babies receive the first of three hepatitis B shots just after birth, mainly to prevent infections from mothers who unknowingly had the liver disease or had falsely tested negative.The approach has virtually eradicated hepatitis B infections among young people in the United States.Hepatitis B is a viral liver disease that can be transmitted by the mother during childbirth and puts those affected at high risk of death from cirrhosis or liver cancer.After delaying the vote by a day, the panel eventually passed its new recommendation for “individual-based decision-making,” in consultation with a health care provider, when children are born to mothers testing negatively for the disease.The decision should “consider vaccine benefits, vaccine risks, and infection risks.”It also recommends that babies who are not vaccinated at birth wait at least two months to get the initial dose.Under Kennedy, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is now composed largely of figures criticized by the scientific community for lack of expertise or their promotion of vaccine-skeptic theories.The vote was 8-3. Trump-appointed officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are widely expected to formally adopt the recommendations at a later date.Since 1991, US health officials have recommended the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns, as is done in countries including China and Australia and is recommended by the World Health Organization.But several ACIP members have argued that Friday’s decision aligns the US vaccination schedule with those of other economically developed countries such as France and Britain.Medical experts say such a change is risky in the United States, pointing to shortcomings in maternal screening, with delays likely to cause a drop in vaccination rates in a country where access to health care can be complicated.”This irresponsible and purposely misleading guidance will lead to more hepatitis B infections in infants and children,” American Academy of Pediatrics President Susan J. Kressly said in a statement.The repercussions of the ACIP’s vaccine recommendations are broad because federal guidelines often dictate whether vaccines are paid for by health insurance companies in the United States, where a vaccine can cost hundreds of dollars.On Friday, the panel is set to begin a broader review of the childhood vaccination schedule and the composition of vaccines.But the committee’s influence is waning amid withering criticism from the US scientific and medical community, with Democratic-led states announcing they will no longer follow its recommendations.Some in Trump’s own Republican party have also pushed back against the ACIP’s actions, including Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy.Cassidy, a medical doctor who provided a key vote to allow Kennedy’s nomination to succeed, condemned the ACIP’s decision, noting the original recommendation was “NOT a mandate” to get the jab.CDC officials “should not sign these new recommendations and instead retain the current, evidence-based approach,” he said on X.Ahead of the vote, Dr. Cody Meissner, one of the few dissenting voices on the advisory committee, urged his colleagues not to change the current recommendations. “Do no harm is a moral imperative. We are doing harm by changing this wording,” he warned.