X is not a gatekeeper platform and therefore not beholden to the Digital Markets Act strict list of regulations.
But the reason why X isn’t one of the seven Big Tech companies that are required to comply with certain fair business practices might sting Elon Musk‘s ego a bit.
This announcement came from the European Commission in a press release on Wednesday morning. X doesn’t qualify as a gatekeeper because the assessment from the Digital Markets Advisory Committee, “revealed that X is not an important gateway for business users to reach end users.”
Musk will no doubt be happy that his company doesn’t have to adhere to the DMA’s “do’s and don’ts” which if violated, amount to a penalty of 10 percent of the company’s global turnover. But the Commission’s conclusion that X isn’t an important enough platform for businesses to impact users is like rubbing proverbial salt on the wound of X’s current advertising situation.
About a year ago, many big ticket companies including Apple and Disney pulled their ads from X in the wake of antisemitic and hate speech comments posted by Elon Musk. Musk since apologized for his remarks, but revenue has reportedly tanked, since the CEO took over the company which relies heavily on an advertising model. More recently, X filed an antitrust lawsuit against advertisers, claiming they conspired against the X to hurt it financially.
That said, X didn’t want to be classified as a gatekeeper anyway. According to the Commission’s announcement, X submitted “rebuttal arguments, explaining why its online social networking service should not, in its view, qualify as an important gateway.” The seven Big Tech companies classified as gatekeepers are Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, Apple, ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company), Meta, Microsoft, and Booking.com. Yeah, Booking.com is a gatekeeper and X isn’t. Let that sink in.
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