EU Probe Puts Elon Musk’s X in the Hot Seat

Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly Twitter, is in the hot seat as the EU expands its probe into the company. That includes seeking additional information from X about its content suggestions policies and any recent changes. The company has until Feb. 15 to provide these documents to the EU.

Part of the investigation into X also includes an information retention order. This requires X to keep internal documents concerning the operations and changes made to its content suggestion system in 2025. This comes as EU regulators seek additional insight into the company’s operations as part of an investigation that started in 2023.

Musk Fights Against X Probe

Elon Musk has been a vocal opponent of the EU and its probe into X. He’s called out its actions as harmful to free speech and democracy. Musk has taken a strong stance on allowing free speech on X. His first post after buying the company for $44 billion in 2022 was “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy.”

However, Musk has faced criticism from X users over how he punishes speech on the platform. That includes allegedly removing blue checkmarks, X’s paid verification that offers a portion of profits to subscribers, from users that are critical of him.

Musk defended these actions, saying “It’s a good sign that people can insult me at will on my own platform, as it means freedom of speech is real. Sometimes people confuse freedom of speech with demanding that I also pay them to insult me, which is not the same thing 😂.”

How to Invest in X

Traders can’t take a stake in X as the social media platform went private following Musk’s purchase. Instead, investors might consider a stake in Tesla (TSLA) to bet on Musk’s possible success. Tesla is the only one of his companies that is publicly traded. The analysts’ consensus rating and price target for TSLA are Hold and $329.63, representing a potential 20.34% downside.

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