December 9, 2025 • 23 mins
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The EU fined X 120 million euros under the Digital Services Act for deceptive design and transparency failures, and Elon Musk responded by saying the European Union should be abolished; here’s what the decision covers, why it targets product mechanics, and what X may do next.
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(00:00):
Thanks to our amazing community members like you, we've reached
the top 15 of Spotify's video podcast, the Top 10 audio
podcasts on both Apple and Spotify for the tech category,
so you all make this possible. If you want to support us more,
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Something interesting happened the other day.
I was looking through our stats on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
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hit the subscribe button right now would help the show
tremendously. Thank you so much.
The European Commission fined Elon Musk's XA 120 million euros
under the Digital Services Act for transparency and design
violations. We're talking about Elon Musk,
(01:32):
X&E, US biggest rules for onlineplatforms today, and the penalty
targets how X sold blue checkmarks, ran ads and open
data to independent researchers.That one caught my attention.
Is this about speech or is it about how the company runs its
products Now after the fine, Elon Musk said the European
Union should be abolished, and he blasted the decision across
(01:54):
his own platform on X. Going to walk you through with
the EU cited when Musk argued and what happens next if X
pushes this into court. We'll also look at what the DSA
actually asks from big platforms, how deceptive design
works in practice and what this means for the blue check
business. And we'll get right into that
after this very short break. Now, the EU imposed a €100
(02:19):
million fine on X for breaking transparency rules.
Then Elon Musk answered by calling the EU to be abolished
because, as we all know, billionaires like to abolish
unions. Countries, I guess, now picture
like kind of a Brussels press room, blue flags behind the
(02:40):
podium, reporters scrolling on their phones as they push alert
hits. The Commission said X's blue
check mark design misled users about who was actually verified.
Now that changes trust because the badge signals authenticity
to people who scan timelines fast.
And remember when the blue checkmark used to be just verified
(03:04):
users, you couldn't buy a check mark.
You had to earn a check mark. Now if you get fooled by a
badge, you misread a post and you maybe share it.
Definition for you, A verification check mark is a
small icon that tells you an account identity has been
confirmed and not just paid for.But it doesn't matter.
(03:27):
It cannot be confirmed other than that you paid with a credit
card. That's it.
You could be anybody, you could confirm it.
You could be anybody doing anything.
And if you have the blue check mark, nobody's going to verify
you. That's how it works.
Alvord X Regulators also cited gaps and X's ad transparency in
the platform's research data access that put pressure on how
(03:49):
ads get tracked and how claims about reach, targeting and
political content can be checked.
And if researchers can't see public data, they can't test
what the company says about harm, manipulation or spam.
Now an ad repository is a searchable library of ads, who
paid for them and whom they target as transparency.
(04:10):
People remember, Elon Musk wantsto have everything transparent,
wants freedom of speech. But also the legal frame here is
that the Digital Services Act, the E US rulebook for big
platforms, the DSA, asks large services to reduce systemic
risks, public ad libraries and open public data for vetted
(04:31):
researchers. That opens a new baseline for
how companies must document their systems.
Simple definition here. The DSA is a European law that
sets safety and transparency duties from major online
platforms. So what do we know right now
about all this? One, the EU levied 120 million
euros in penalties. 2 The cited violations include deceptive
(04:54):
design around the blue check mark and transparency failures
and blocked researcher access. Now 3 Musk answered with a
sweeping political call to abolish the whole EU.
That's it. He wants to abolish the whole EU
because they find him for deceptive practices and the
(05:15):
deceptive design of a blue checkmark and transparency and also
blocking researcher access. Now Musk framed this penalty as
an attack on free speech and called for sovereignty to return
to member countries. And that raises a core question
about whether the fine touches content choices or product
mechanics. My read is that the Commission's
(05:37):
case lives in product mechanics,not your posts.
I'm a designer, I'm a developer.This is about if you design
something to verify something, aperson, the design is the check
mark, the verification of who a person is.
If they're a real person, and now that you know they're a real
(05:57):
person because they bought a check mark.
But I guess you could buy a check mark with, you could buy
multiple checkmarks and you don't have to be a person.
You can have a be a bot with a check mark.
Now the short and clear of it isit's about how the feature works
and what the company discloses. Now here's the key point though.
The blue check mark became a paid product which blurred lines
(06:18):
between identity and status. That makes confusion cheaper to
buy, which is a risk if people use the badge as a shortcut for
trust. Now hold on to that detail.
Let's talk evidence and process because that's where outcome
gets decided. Here.
The Commission documented its findings and issued a formal
decision with a fine attached. X can appeal the decision in EU
(06:40):
courts if it believes the rulingor process will flawed.
One sentence definition here appeal is request for higher
court to review and possibly overturn a regular dater's
decision. Now Elon Musk and X, that's all
in their rights. They can do that.
They can appeal this. Now there's another thing.
Add transparency. The EU wants a living index of
(07:03):
political and commercial ads. Who paid for them, who saw them,
and why those people saw them. That changes how influence
campaigns are audited because you need hard data to test
claims about reach. Now, do you think I want to know
in the comments of whatever podcast platform you're on right
now? Because this kind of stuff gets
me riled up, What Elon Musk saidthat he thinks the EU should be
(07:24):
abolished, everything should return to what they were because
he doesn't agree with this. Fine, there's something deeper
here. There's something deeper here.
We're going to dig into that in some other episode, but not
today because we don't have enough time today.
We usually do this in about 10 minutes and we're coming up on
that mark. It's deeper than this.
(07:45):
Elon Musk. Do you think Elon Musk thinks he
can do this? Do you think he can abolish
that? You do you think he thinks that
because he's all powerful and hehas enough money?
Once you have enough money, do you get kind of crazy?
Let me know in the comments. So if the library is complete
(08:06):
for all of those ads, the changes on these ads like they
have to be documented and the changes how the influence
campaigns are audited because you need hard data to test
claims about reach, the library is incomplete for these
political ads. Even good faith checks fall
apart. Now that part matters for
(08:27):
elections and for consumer protections.
Think about this elections, ElonMusk, Donald Trump, the EU, all
the sanctions, all the tariffs, all all the stuff it's become
politically hostile over there in Trump camp and Elon Musk
camp, not any anybody's side here.
I'm just reporting the facts. We all know how it went down and
(08:50):
the Elon is good at bashing people.
Let's just say this. He's good at bashing people and
he's good at just yelling into the void, right?
So he likes to yell into X and into Twitter.
He's likes to post crazy things and get people riled up.
Now research is the third leg here.
(09:11):
The DSA pushes platforms to giveaccredited researchers
controlled access to public dataso independent teams can measure
risks. That opens up the light that
doesn't rely on a company blog post or a press pitch for what
Elon Musk posts on X. If the pipes are closed, outside
scrutiny can't work. And that's what Elon is afraid
(09:33):
of, don't you think? Leave it in the comments.
Now do a little recap before we go any further.
We're dealing with three sightedfailures, 1 historic find in a
political response that tries towiden the frame to speech and
sovereignty. It's a lot of stuff going on
right now. Now let me bring this back to
you. If the blue check mark can be
(09:53):
bought without a true identity check, you can't use the badge
as a shortcut for who's a real person.
Anybody can buy a check mark forany account, right?
The the person could be buying the check mark, but the person
could be buying the check mark for a bot account, or a stolen
card could be used to buy the check mark for somebody's
(10:14):
account. Who knows?
Now that makes scams much cheaper, and it makes parity
harder to spot. My analysis is that it raises
the baseline cost for everyone to verify anything, which erodes
the trust over time. That's the practical hit.
If these people buy a check markto show that they're a real
(10:35):
person, that's one thing. But if they're if they show, if
it's to show that you're actually in a reporter or a
person of interest, then that's different.
You have to apply for it and only certain people can get in.
You know, it was kind of a, it'san exclusive club.
They still do that in a blue sky.
(10:57):
I'm tinkering with a social network on my of my own and I'll
let you guys know about that in the future.
Sort of a mix of Reddit and Twitter and blue sky and bunch
of other things. But I'm just tinkering it and
vibe coding it right now. So I'll let you know about that
in the future, but just bear with me for a second.
(11:22):
Keep going with me here. The EU fine is big enough to get
Elon's attention, but it's stillwithin the range that a large
platform can absorb it. Like X makes a lot of money,
right? Elon has a bunch of money.
He doesn't. 150 million is nothing to him.
That means the real risk isn't the single check to company
rights for this, it's 150 million.
(11:43):
It's the product work the company has to do to comply.
If the features stay as they are, the finds can stack up.
It's a simple cause and effect. Elon should know that he's an
engineer. You should know how that works.
But if these fines keep adding up, 150,000,300 million,
450,000,600 million, a billion dollars eventually, and then
(12:11):
Elon just wants to abolish the whole EU.
So that's that's his, that's theoutcome that he wants.
He just wants, he doesn't want rules for him and his platform.
He's like, you know what, if you're going to put rules on me,
like let me just abolish your whole country, your whole union.
(12:31):
It's an interesting thing going on with this because as much as
I enjoy the great things about Elon in his engineering, SpaceX,
Tesla, Starlink, Boring Company,Neuralink, etcetera, there are
times when he says some really wild stuff like he cannot
(12:52):
abolish the EU. He's not that powerful.
He might want to because they called him out instead of his
BS. And there's different rules in
the EU than there are in the United States.
He wants everybody to have the same rules that he has.
Doesn't work like that, buddy. And it's not because I'm a hater
of Elon. It's just the way that some
people work, you know, it doesn't work like that.
(13:15):
So if you go to Japan, they don't have the same rules as
they do in Kentucky. It's just not the way it works.
You go to China, they're not thesame rules as they are in
Indonesia. Doesn't work like that.
You know how it works? Just follow the rules, man.
Just follow the rules. You're no better than anybody
(13:35):
else. You're just a guy.
In 100 years from now, and I hate to say this about anybody,
but it's true about everybody, 100 years from now, people will
remember that Elon made electricvehicles in the USA thing.
(13:55):
They'll remember him building rockets, giant rockets.
If Starship succeeds, that's great.
And also some of, you know, neural link things like that to
remember that stuff, right? But at the end of the day, he's
no better than you and me. He's just a guy.
He's a guy that knows how to play the game.
(14:15):
He knows how to play the system and he knows how to work well
within the system. And that in itself is a massive
skill to have, as you can tell because he's accumulated so much
wealth from the game that he plays with other people's lives
that it's it's a wild thing to think about that.
(14:38):
So in 100 years from now, Elon not going to be here.
He cannot break up a the EU he wants to because he doesn't want
to play by the rules, but they have the rules and he has to
stick with them. He can go to court for it.
That's going to cost them money too.
So as a designer, a UX designer,and a developer, coder guy for
(15:00):
the last 10 years or so, I want to go back to this deceptive
design thing for a minute because that phrase shows up and
it trips up people's minds here.So deceptive design means a user
interface nudges you into misunderstanding or into choices
(15:20):
you wouldn't make if the screen are clearer.
So that covers labels, icons, prompts and how default settings
stereo. So that means that this blue
check mark can trick you and that's it.
Very simple. How many times have you seen a
blue check mark and been like, hey, it's a person, could be a
bot, You never know. And Musk's call to abolish the
(15:45):
EU is the sharpest possible response to a regulatory action.
I think it's funny. It opens up a political lane
where product questions become national identity questions.
It's a move that rallies supporters and reframes the
fight as freedom versus bureaucracy.
And I get why people think that.Now, here's where this goes.
(16:06):
If X appeals, the case moves into court filings and briefs
that go line by line through thedesign of the disclosures.
So that's where we have discovery.
We're going to discover every reason behind every design
choice that X has made and behind every choice that the
(16:26):
check mark was designed for, andmake screenshots in developer
notes, evidence. And if X doesn't change the
product in the interim, regulators can keep pushing,
keep finding them, slow, steady,but it'll happen.
So let's talk about some practical fixes, though, because
(16:51):
that's what matters to users, toyou and me, everyday.
A clearer check mark label couldsay whether identity was
verified or only paid. So you could verify your
identity with, you know, a government issued license or
something like that. A stronger ad library could show
how much they spent the audienceof that spend and targeting
(17:14):
logic in one place you can search and that's what the EU is
asking for. And a researcher portal could
document how to request access and how the company creates it.
And that's straightforward, veryeasy for the people at X to
develop. Changing the tag on the blue
(17:35):
check mark could be very simple.You could even give people, if
it's not a blue check mark, if he just paid for that, he'd do a
blue check mark. OK, that's a person.
Maybe you make a new check mark.Maybe you make a rainbow check
mark. How about that?
And then that shows that you're a real person, you know, and
you've verified your identity. And here's the question that I
(17:58):
keep getting. Does any of this change what you
can post? Talked to a bunch of people
today on X and then my Discord. The decision cited how features
and disclosures work, not about specific posts or viewpoints.
So this is just mechanics for us.
Is the blue check mark going to change a little bit?
(18:18):
Maybe, but that's OK where it's not going to affect us at all.
Musk stance sets up a broader campaign against the DSA in
principle that makes future enforcement against other
platforms more charged. Because every action looks like
a proxy fight over speech. Even when the text is about
product design. Elon wants to make this about
(18:40):
speech when it's absolutely not about free speech.
This is a design choice. If you're a product manager at
any platform, including X, you're watching the check mark
case like a map of what not to ship.
That's it. Don't ship that check mark.
Think before you act people. A good product manager would
(19:00):
have caught this and been like, I don't know man, just a blue
check mark. People pay for it.
Sure, we're going to make money,but what does that even mean
anymore? Because the blue check mark at
one point was it was literally astatus symbol if you got that
check mark. Like when I I was at the peak of
my YouTube career and I was literally feet away from where
(19:24):
Elon Musk toured Star Base. I was at Star Base for a year.
I could not get a blue check mark.
I knew all the guys there. I knew all the people there that
were working at Star Base and they were climbing on Starship,
welding it together, building the launchpad.
I couldn't get a blue check mark.
I couldn't get a blue check mark.
(19:45):
So my status wasn't good enough to get a blue check mark.
Other people's were. I wasn't.
I wasn't upset about it. I didn't care.
It's a blue check mark. It would have been cool.
I would have felt justified for the work that I was doing and
that Elon Musk and SpaceX saw mefor who I was, which was a
supporter of the systems down there and the platform that
they're building didn't get it. But you know what other people
(20:06):
did? And they were verified this blue
check mark if you're a product manager.
It just means somebody paid for it.
That's it, That's it. So here's what I want you to
hold on to from this one. The EU's find rests on the idea.
The big platforms, oh users clarity about who's speaking,
who's paying and how research can check the system.
(20:27):
Musk's answer raises a politicalchallenge that sits above those
product choices has nothing to do with the product.
It has everything to do with Elon beating his chest and being
upset that they find him becausehe thinks his platform is
properly developed. Now your experience or truth
online comes down to labels, libraries and accesses and also
(20:50):
good product managers. So choose wisely product
managers, which way do you want to go?
The facts are simple enough to track.
The EU fined €120 million for deceptive design and
transparency failures under the DSA.
Should have read the documents. Elon and company and Musk called
for the EU to be abolished. X could appeal and the product
(21:12):
changes the EU asked for are clear enough to ship.
If the company chooses. It won't take much time to ship
those changes, but I think Elon's going to back off and
protect this as much as he can. He might even pull Twitter or X
out of the EU if he feels like he's not going to work out.
But what will actually happen over there?
(21:33):
Will they really lose anything? I don't know.
There's other platforms. Anyway, I'll let you know about
my own platform in the coming weeks, and I'll let you have a a
sneak peek if you want to. And I have another thing in the
works too, and I'll tell you about that.
I've been working in the marketing industry for a very
(21:54):
long time in television and radio.
This podcast alone has been downloaded millions of times.
I have another podcast that's been downloaded about 3 million
times. My YouTube channel has had
millions of views as well. So I'm working on a community
(22:15):
for us. So if you're a business owner
and you're interested in help with podcasting or YouTube,
there's more stuff coming for you.
So please hit the subscribe or follow button on whatever
podcast platform you're on rightnow because there's going to be
more information about it. I'm going to leave a link to it
in the description down below, the show notes down below and
(22:38):
you can check it out. You can sign up for it.
It's all free. And this is I just have a bear
skeleton for you right now. There's got to be more to it.
But right now there's going to be a link in the description for
my new community for business owners and people who are
involved in any sort of businessor interested in finance and
(22:58):
business. OK, so that's that's what I got
right now. Link down below.
Thanks everybody. Take care of yourselves and each
other and I'll see you in the next one.
Support, if you could take a second and hit the subscribe or
(23:20):
the follow button on whatever podcast platform that you're
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And please, if you want to support the show even more, go
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(23:41):
yourselves and each other. And I'll see you tomorrow.
Thanks to our amazing community members like you, we've reached
the top 15 of Spotify's video podcast, the Top 10 audio
podcasts on both Apple and Spotify for the tech category,
so you all make this possible. If you want to support us more,
check out our Patreon. That's patreon.com/stage 0 News
so we can keep this free and open for you to enjoy.
(00:26):
Something interesting happened the other day.
I was looking through our stats on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
and I noticed that about 55% of you are not subscribed to the
show. That means 45% of you are
subscribed and I really do appreciate your support.
Now the other 55% of you are awesome, but I'm going to ask
(00:47):
you for a favor. Could you please hit the
subscribe button? It'll take you one second.
I'm going to promise you 10 years of this podcast for free,
No pay walls. I'm not going to charge you
anything ever, but I'm going to give you 10 years of this show
for free. I've already been doing it for
five years and I plan on doing it for 10 more.
And the only way that we can continue doing this is with your
support. So one second of your time to
(01:09):
hit the subscribe button right now would help the show
tremendously. Thank you so much.
The European Commission fined Elon Musk's XA 120 million euros
under the Digital Services Act for transparency and design
violations. We're talking about Elon Musk,
(01:32):
X&E, US biggest rules for onlineplatforms today, and the penalty
targets how X sold blue checkmarks, ran ads and open
data to independent researchers.That one caught my attention.
Is this about speech or is it about how the company runs its
products Now after the fine, Elon Musk said the European
Union should be abolished, and he blasted the decision across
(01:54):
his own platform on X. Going to walk you through with
the EU cited when Musk argued and what happens next if X
pushes this into court. We'll also look at what the DSA
actually asks from big platforms, how deceptive design
works in practice and what this means for the blue check
business. And we'll get right into that
after this very short break. Now, the EU imposed a €100
(02:19):
million fine on X for breaking transparency rules.
Then Elon Musk answered by calling the EU to be abolished
because, as we all know, billionaires like to abolish
unions. Countries, I guess, now picture
like kind of a Brussels press room, blue flags behind the
(02:40):
podium, reporters scrolling on their phones as they push alert
hits. The Commission said X's blue
check mark design misled users about who was actually verified.
Now that changes trust because the badge signals authenticity
to people who scan timelines fast.
And remember when the blue checkmark used to be just verified
(03:04):
users, you couldn't buy a check mark.
You had to earn a check mark. Now if you get fooled by a
badge, you misread a post and you maybe share it.
Definition for you, A verification check mark is a
small icon that tells you an account identity has been
confirmed and not just paid for.But it doesn't matter.
(03:27):
It cannot be confirmed other than that you paid with a credit
card. That's it.
You could be anybody, you could confirm it.
You could be anybody doing anything.
And if you have the blue check mark, nobody's going to verify
you. That's how it works.
Alvord X Regulators also cited gaps and X's ad transparency in
the platform's research data access that put pressure on how
(03:49):
ads get tracked and how claims about reach, targeting and
political content can be checked.
And if researchers can't see public data, they can't test
what the company says about harm, manipulation or spam.
Now an ad repository is a searchable library of ads, who
paid for them and whom they target as transparency.
(04:10):
People remember, Elon Musk wantsto have everything transparent,
wants freedom of speech. But also the legal frame here is
that the Digital Services Act, the E US rulebook for big
platforms, the DSA, asks large services to reduce systemic
risks, public ad libraries and open public data for vetted
(04:31):
researchers. That opens a new baseline for
how companies must document their systems.
Simple definition here. The DSA is a European law that
sets safety and transparency duties from major online
platforms. So what do we know right now
about all this? One, the EU levied 120 million
euros in penalties. 2 The cited violations include deceptive
(04:54):
design around the blue check mark and transparency failures
and blocked researcher access. Now 3 Musk answered with a
sweeping political call to abolish the whole EU.
That's it. He wants to abolish the whole EU
because they find him for deceptive practices and the
(05:15):
deceptive design of a blue checkmark and transparency and also
blocking researcher access. Now Musk framed this penalty as
an attack on free speech and called for sovereignty to return
to member countries. And that raises a core question
about whether the fine touches content choices or product
mechanics. My read is that the Commission's
(05:37):
case lives in product mechanics,not your posts.
I'm a designer, I'm a developer.This is about if you design
something to verify something, aperson, the design is the check
mark, the verification of who a person is.
If they're a real person, and now that you know they're a real
(05:57):
person because they bought a check mark.
But I guess you could buy a check mark with, you could buy
multiple checkmarks and you don't have to be a person.
You can have a be a bot with a check mark.
Now the short and clear of it isit's about how the feature works
and what the company discloses. Now here's the key point though.
The blue check mark became a paid product which blurred lines
(06:18):
between identity and status. That makes confusion cheaper to
buy, which is a risk if people use the badge as a shortcut for
trust. Now hold on to that detail.
Let's talk evidence and process because that's where outcome
gets decided. Here.
The Commission documented its findings and issued a formal
decision with a fine attached. X can appeal the decision in EU
(06:40):
courts if it believes the rulingor process will flawed.
One sentence definition here appeal is request for higher
court to review and possibly overturn a regular dater's
decision. Now Elon Musk and X, that's all
in their rights. They can do that.
They can appeal this. Now there's another thing.
Add transparency. The EU wants a living index of
(07:03):
political and commercial ads. Who paid for them, who saw them,
and why those people saw them. That changes how influence
campaigns are audited because you need hard data to test
claims about reach. Now, do you think I want to know
in the comments of whatever podcast platform you're on right
now? Because this kind of stuff gets
me riled up, What Elon Musk saidthat he thinks the EU should be
(07:24):
abolished, everything should return to what they were because
he doesn't agree with this. Fine, there's something deeper
here. There's something deeper here.
We're going to dig into that in some other episode, but not
today because we don't have enough time today.
We usually do this in about 10 minutes and we're coming up on
that mark. It's deeper than this.
(07:45):
Elon Musk. Do you think Elon Musk thinks he
can do this? Do you think he can abolish
that? You do you think he thinks that
because he's all powerful and hehas enough money?
Once you have enough money, do you get kind of crazy?
Let me know in the comments. So if the library is complete
(08:06):
for all of those ads, the changes on these ads like they
have to be documented and the changes how the influence
campaigns are audited because you need hard data to test
claims about reach, the library is incomplete for these
political ads. Even good faith checks fall
apart. Now that part matters for
(08:27):
elections and for consumer protections.
Think about this elections, ElonMusk, Donald Trump, the EU, all
the sanctions, all the tariffs, all all the stuff it's become
politically hostile over there in Trump camp and Elon Musk
camp, not any anybody's side here.
I'm just reporting the facts. We all know how it went down and
(08:50):
the Elon is good at bashing people.
Let's just say this. He's good at bashing people and
he's good at just yelling into the void, right?
So he likes to yell into X and into Twitter.
He's likes to post crazy things and get people riled up.
Now research is the third leg here.
(09:11):
The DSA pushes platforms to giveaccredited researchers
controlled access to public dataso independent teams can measure
risks. That opens up the light that
doesn't rely on a company blog post or a press pitch for what
Elon Musk posts on X. If the pipes are closed, outside
scrutiny can't work. And that's what Elon is afraid
(09:33):
of, don't you think? Leave it in the comments.
Now do a little recap before we go any further.
We're dealing with three sightedfailures, 1 historic find in a
political response that tries towiden the frame to speech and
sovereignty. It's a lot of stuff going on
right now. Now let me bring this back to
you. If the blue check mark can be
(09:53):
bought without a true identity check, you can't use the badge
as a shortcut for who's a real person.
Anybody can buy a check mark forany account, right?
The the person could be buying the check mark, but the person
could be buying the check mark for a bot account, or a stolen
card could be used to buy the check mark for somebody's
(10:14):
account. Who knows?
Now that makes scams much cheaper, and it makes parity
harder to spot. My analysis is that it raises
the baseline cost for everyone to verify anything, which erodes
the trust over time. That's the practical hit.
If these people buy a check markto show that they're a real
(10:35):
person, that's one thing. But if they're if they show, if
it's to show that you're actually in a reporter or a
person of interest, then that's different.
You have to apply for it and only certain people can get in.
You know, it was kind of a, it'san exclusive club.
They still do that in a blue sky.
(10:57):
I'm tinkering with a social network on my of my own and I'll
let you guys know about that in the future.
Sort of a mix of Reddit and Twitter and blue sky and bunch
of other things. But I'm just tinkering it and
vibe coding it right now. So I'll let you know about that
in the future, but just bear with me for a second.
(11:22):
Keep going with me here. The EU fine is big enough to get
Elon's attention, but it's stillwithin the range that a large
platform can absorb it. Like X makes a lot of money,
right? Elon has a bunch of money.
He doesn't. 150 million is nothing to him.
That means the real risk isn't the single check to company
rights for this, it's 150 million.
(11:43):
It's the product work the company has to do to comply.
If the features stay as they are, the finds can stack up.
It's a simple cause and effect. Elon should know that he's an
engineer. You should know how that works.
But if these fines keep adding up, 150,000,300 million,
450,000,600 million, a billion dollars eventually, and then
(12:11):
Elon just wants to abolish the whole EU.
So that's that's his, that's theoutcome that he wants.
He just wants, he doesn't want rules for him and his platform.
He's like, you know what, if you're going to put rules on me,
like let me just abolish your whole country, your whole union.
(12:31):
It's an interesting thing going on with this because as much as
I enjoy the great things about Elon in his engineering, SpaceX,
Tesla, Starlink, Boring Company,Neuralink, etcetera, there are
times when he says some really wild stuff like he cannot
(12:52):
abolish the EU. He's not that powerful.
He might want to because they called him out instead of his
BS. And there's different rules in
the EU than there are in the United States.
He wants everybody to have the same rules that he has.
Doesn't work like that, buddy. And it's not because I'm a hater
of Elon. It's just the way that some
people work, you know, it doesn't work like that.
(13:15):
So if you go to Japan, they don't have the same rules as
they do in Kentucky. It's just not the way it works.
You go to China, they're not thesame rules as they are in
Indonesia. Doesn't work like that.
You know how it works? Just follow the rules, man.
Just follow the rules. You're no better than anybody
(13:35):
else. You're just a guy.
In 100 years from now, and I hate to say this about anybody,
but it's true about everybody, 100 years from now, people will
remember that Elon made electricvehicles in the USA thing.
(13:55):
They'll remember him building rockets, giant rockets.
If Starship succeeds, that's great.
And also some of, you know, neural link things like that to
remember that stuff, right? But at the end of the day, he's
no better than you and me. He's just a guy.
He's a guy that knows how to play the game.
(14:15):
He knows how to play the system and he knows how to work well
within the system. And that in itself is a massive
skill to have, as you can tell because he's accumulated so much
wealth from the game that he plays with other people's lives
that it's it's a wild thing to think about that.
(14:38):
So in 100 years from now, Elon not going to be here.
He cannot break up a the EU he wants to because he doesn't want
to play by the rules, but they have the rules and he has to
stick with them. He can go to court for it.
That's going to cost them money too.
So as a designer, a UX designer,and a developer, coder guy for
(15:00):
the last 10 years or so, I want to go back to this deceptive
design thing for a minute because that phrase shows up and
it trips up people's minds here.So deceptive design means a user
interface nudges you into misunderstanding or into choices
(15:20):
you wouldn't make if the screen are clearer.
So that covers labels, icons, prompts and how default settings
stereo. So that means that this blue
check mark can trick you and that's it.
Very simple. How many times have you seen a
blue check mark and been like, hey, it's a person, could be a
bot, You never know. And Musk's call to abolish the
(15:45):
EU is the sharpest possible response to a regulatory action.
I think it's funny. It opens up a political lane
where product questions become national identity questions.
It's a move that rallies supporters and reframes the
fight as freedom versus bureaucracy.
And I get why people think that.Now, here's where this goes.
(16:06):
If X appeals, the case moves into court filings and briefs
that go line by line through thedesign of the disclosures.
So that's where we have discovery.
We're going to discover every reason behind every design
choice that X has made and behind every choice that the
(16:26):
check mark was designed for, andmake screenshots in developer
notes, evidence. And if X doesn't change the
product in the interim, regulators can keep pushing,
keep finding them, slow, steady,but it'll happen.
So let's talk about some practical fixes, though, because
(16:51):
that's what matters to users, toyou and me, everyday.
A clearer check mark label couldsay whether identity was
verified or only paid. So you could verify your
identity with, you know, a government issued license or
something like that. A stronger ad library could show
how much they spent the audienceof that spend and targeting
(17:14):
logic in one place you can search and that's what the EU is
asking for. And a researcher portal could
document how to request access and how the company creates it.
And that's straightforward, veryeasy for the people at X to
develop. Changing the tag on the blue
(17:35):
check mark could be very simple.You could even give people, if
it's not a blue check mark, if he just paid for that, he'd do a
blue check mark. OK, that's a person.
Maybe you make a new check mark.Maybe you make a rainbow check
mark. How about that?
And then that shows that you're a real person, you know, and
you've verified your identity. And here's the question that I
(17:58):
keep getting. Does any of this change what you
can post? Talked to a bunch of people
today on X and then my Discord. The decision cited how features
and disclosures work, not about specific posts or viewpoints.
So this is just mechanics for us.
Is the blue check mark going to change a little bit?
(18:18):
Maybe, but that's OK where it's not going to affect us at all.
Musk stance sets up a broader campaign against the DSA in
principle that makes future enforcement against other
platforms more charged. Because every action looks like
a proxy fight over speech. Even when the text is about
product design. Elon wants to make this about
(18:40):
speech when it's absolutely not about free speech.
This is a design choice. If you're a product manager at
any platform, including X, you're watching the check mark
case like a map of what not to ship.
That's it. Don't ship that check mark.
Think before you act people. A good product manager would
(19:00):
have caught this and been like, I don't know man, just a blue
check mark. People pay for it.
Sure, we're going to make money,but what does that even mean
anymore? Because the blue check mark at
one point was it was literally astatus symbol if you got that
check mark. Like when I I was at the peak of
my YouTube career and I was literally feet away from where
(19:24):
Elon Musk toured Star Base. I was at Star Base for a year.
I could not get a blue check mark.
I knew all the guys there. I knew all the people there that
were working at Star Base and they were climbing on Starship,
welding it together, building the launchpad.
I couldn't get a blue check mark.
I couldn't get a blue check mark.
(19:45):
So my status wasn't good enough to get a blue check mark.
Other people's were. I wasn't.
I wasn't upset about it. I didn't care.
It's a blue check mark. It would have been cool.
I would have felt justified for the work that I was doing and
that Elon Musk and SpaceX saw mefor who I was, which was a
supporter of the systems down there and the platform that
they're building didn't get it. But you know what other people
(20:06):
did? And they were verified this blue
check mark if you're a product manager.
It just means somebody paid for it.
That's it, That's it. So here's what I want you to
hold on to from this one. The EU's find rests on the idea.
The big platforms, oh users clarity about who's speaking,
who's paying and how research can check the system.
(20:27):
Musk's answer raises a politicalchallenge that sits above those
product choices has nothing to do with the product.
It has everything to do with Elon beating his chest and being
upset that they find him becausehe thinks his platform is
properly developed. Now your experience or truth
online comes down to labels, libraries and accesses and also
(20:50):
good product managers. So choose wisely product
managers, which way do you want to go?
The facts are simple enough to track.
The EU fined €120 million for deceptive design and
transparency failures under the DSA.
Should have read the documents. Elon and company and Musk called
for the EU to be abolished. X could appeal and the product
(21:12):
changes the EU asked for are clear enough to ship.
If the company chooses. It won't take much time to ship
those changes, but I think Elon's going to back off and
protect this as much as he can. He might even pull Twitter or X
out of the EU if he feels like he's not going to work out.
But what will actually happen over there?
(21:33):
Will they really lose anything? I don't know.
There's other platforms. Anyway, I'll let you know about
my own platform in the coming weeks, and I'll let you have a a
sneak peek if you want to. And I have another thing in the
works too, and I'll tell you about that.
I've been working in the marketing industry for a very
(21:54):
long time in television and radio.
This podcast alone has been downloaded millions of times.
I have another podcast that's been downloaded about 3 million
times. My YouTube channel has had
millions of views as well. So I'm working on a community
(22:15):
for us. So if you're a business owner
and you're interested in help with podcasting or YouTube,
there's more stuff coming for you.
So please hit the subscribe or follow button on whatever
podcast platform you're on rightnow because there's going to be
more information about it. I'm going to leave a link to it
in the description down below, the show notes down below and
(22:38):
you can check it out. You can sign up for it.
It's all free. And this is I just have a bear
skeleton for you right now. There's got to be more to it.
But right now there's going to be a link in the description for
my new community for business owners and people who are
involved in any sort of businessor interested in finance and
(22:58):
business. OK, so that's that's what I got
right now. Link down below.
Thanks everybody. Take care of yourselves and each
other and I'll see you in the next one.
Support, if you could take a second and hit the subscribe or
(23:20):
the follow button on whatever podcast platform that you're
listening on right now, I greatly appreciate it.
It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never
miss an episode. And each episode is about 10
minutes or less to get you caught up quickly.
And please, if you want to support the show even more, go
to patreon.com/stage Zero. And please take care of
(23:41):
yourselves and each other. And I'll see you tomorrow.
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