With Europe having been the target of political interference from billionaire Elon Musk via his social media platform X, since the beginning of 2025, and as US President-elect Donald Trump threatened the continent with major tariffs during his election campaign, the European Commission launched a counter-offensive on Friday, January 17, three days before Trump's inauguration. It thus announced measures designed to demonstrate that it would respond to attacks from the upcoming US president and his supporters.

While Brussels has already opened several investigations into X, under the Digital Services Act (DSA), since the end of 2023, it has decided to go one step further, and called for "three additional technical investigatory measures [into] X relating to the platform’s recommender system." It now intends to shed light on algorithm manipulation to promote certain content, notably Musk's own content. For several days now, France and numerous MEPs have been calling on the Commission to firmly apply the DSA.

"We are committed to ensuring that every platform operating in the EU respects our legislation, which aims to make the online environment fair, safe and democratic for all European citizens," said Henna Virkkunen, the Commission's vice president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, on Friday.

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