Social media platform X has deleted an account used by the European Commission, as owner Elon Musk described the bloc as a “tyrannical, unelected bureaucracy” and compared it to Nazi Germany.

“Your ad account has been terminated,” X’s head of product, Nikita Bier, wrote in a reply to the European Commission’s post on X announcing its €120 million ($A211 million) fine for breaking transparency rules.

Bier said the EU account created a post that “deceives users into thinking it’s a video and to artificially increase its reach”, adding: “X believes everyone should have an equal voice on our platform.”

The irony of your announcement:

You logged into your dormant ad account to take advantage of an exploit in our Ad Composer — to post a link that deceives users into thinking it’s a video and to artificially increase its reach.

As you may be aware, X believes everyone should… https://t.co/ziuhUOimOT

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) December 6, 2025

Tech billionaire Musk continued to share his hostility towards the EU, describing it as a “tyrannical, unelected bureaucracy oppressing the people of Europe”.

Musk also reposted a user’s comment that the EU was “The Fourth Reich”, along with a picture of the EU flag peeling off to reveal a Nazi Germany flag with a swastika beneath.

“The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people,” he wrote in another post on X.

The European Commission announced its fine on Friday, accusing the platform of misleadingly authenticating user accounts with blue ticks, withholding data from researchers and not transparently documenting advertisements placed on the platform.

The fine was the first issued issued under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which aims to create a “safer digital space” that protects users’ rights.

“Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU,” Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said of the fine.

Today, we fined X for non-compliance with transparency obligations under the DSA.

We’re holding X accountable for:
🔹Deceptive design of its ‘blue checkmark’
🔹Lack of transparency of its advertising repository
🔹Failure to provide access to public data for researchers

↓

— European Commission (@EU_Commission) December 5, 2025

Virkkunen said the DSA sought to restore trust in the online environment, adding: “With the DSA’s first non-compliance decision, we are holding X responsible for undermining users’ rights and evading accountability.”

The commission said the amount of the fine was proportionate to the infringement.

Musk responded on X with a call to “abolish” the EU.

The fine also drew criticism from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who called it “an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people”.

–with DPA