Business

Musk's X to Open Algorithm to Public in Response to EU Pressure
By Reuters | 10 Jan, 2026

X had been hit with a 120 million euro ($140 million) fine for allegedly failing to abide by the transparency required by the EU's Digital Services Act.

Elon Musk said on Saturday that social media platform X will open to the public its new algorithm, including all code for organic and advertising post recommendations, in seven days.

"This will be repeated every 4 weeks, with comprehensive developer notes, to help you understand what changed," he said in his X post.

Earlier this week, the European Commission decided to extend a retention order sent to X last year, which related to algorithms and dissemination of illegal content, prolonging it to the end of 2026, spokesperson Thomas Regnier told reporters on Thursday.

In July 2025, Paris prosecutors investigated the social media platform for suspected algorithmic bias and fraudulent data extraction, which Musk's X called a "politically-motivated criminal investigation" that threatens its users' free speech.

Last month, the European Union levied a 120 million euro ($140 million) fine on X, with regulators saying the company breached its transparency obligations under the bloc's Digital Services Act. The fine is related to X's "blue checkmark" subscription, lack of transparency related to its ad repository and failure to provide researchers access to the platform's public data.

Musk replied with an obscenity under a European Commission post about the fine. 

(Reporting by Preetika Parashuraman in Bengaluru and Max A. Cherney in San Francisco; editing by Diane Craft, Sergio Non, Rod Nickel)