Nearly Half of Europeans Want X Banned if it Continues to Break the Law
YouGov polling across 5 major EU countries also reveals that 70% of respondents want further action against X if it fails to respond to data privacy and transparency breaches
Brussels, Belgium - According to a new YouGov survey, a vast majority of respondents in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Poland (60-78%) think that the EU should take further action against X if it does not address breaches to European law brought forward by the Commission last year [1]. The majority of those (62%-73%) who wanted further action – and 47% of total participants – want X to be banned from the EU if it refuses to address these breaches [2].
On December 5, the Commission issued its first fine to X under the Digital Services Act (DSA): €120 million for breaching its transparency obligations. During the 90 working days it has to respond to the Commission’s fine, X chose to block the Commission’s official ad account as a form of retaliation.
Since then, X – and Grok, X’s built-in AI assistant – have come under additional fire for a slew of attacks on European values, including spreading an estimated 3 million images of deepfake pornography and child sexual abuse material on the platform. The fallout from the scandal saw a bipartisan group of 54 MEPs demand that policymakers “robustly investigate and enforce European law”, and French prosecutors raided X’s office in Paris last week as part of its ongoing investigation into child abuse material.
Social media harms continue to top the political agenda, as eight countries – Spain, France, Denmark, Italy, Greece, Finland, Germany, and the United Kingdom – and the European Parliament all consider a social media ban for minors to protect them from “illegal and hateful content”.
Against this backdrop, the results of this polling demonstrate that European voters are fed up with inaction from their politicians and are ready for someone to lay down the law. If X fails to respond to the Commission’s fine, 70% of respondents were supportive of repercussions [3]. Among those, between 17-28% think that further fines should be given to X, between 23-29% believe X should be banned, and the largest segment - between 40-52% of those in favour of repercussions - believe that the Commission should fine and ban the social media service entirely from the EU [4].
“Europeans are done with empty warnings. X has been fined, investigated, and given every opportunity to comply – and it has chosen to laugh in the face of the EU instead” said Ava Lee, Executive Director of People vs Big Tech.
“From France and Spain, to Germany and the UK, governments are already considering banning kids from social media to protect them. While this shows politicians are finally waking up to the dangers of Big Tech products, tech companies have a legal responsibility to make their products safe for everyone.
These results show that the European public is open to banning Big Tech companies like X from Europe if they continue to break the law. When a Big Tech company enables serious harm and openly mocks European values, European leaders must stand up and show them who is in charge.”
And the numbers show that Europeans welcome this attitude from the Commission: between 60-73% of respondents support the EU defending online safety and digital privacy, even if this damages the relationship with the United States [5]. The response back to the Commission is just as clear: Europeans want leaders who aren’t afraid to stand up to Big Tech.
Despite overwhelming support for this course of action, banning social media platforms remains a measure of last-resort, only to be exercised when all other enforcement action has failed. X’s actions prove that it is openly hostile towards EU laws and has taken deliberate steps to undermine enforcement, including obstructing researcher access to data. Nonetheless, the strong public sentiment for banning X if it does not address breaches makes it clear that EU citizens want to see strong action from the Commission.
“X may be the first major platform to face this level of scrutiny by the Commission, but it will not be the last. The latest polling data shows that European lawmakers have a golden opportunity to use X to set a vital precedent and send a clear message to Big Tech: European laws come first” said Ava Lee, Executive Director of People vs Big Tech.
[END]
To arrange interviews with spokespeople, please contact [email protected]
Notes
The survey was conducted by YouGov between January 14 and 22, 2026 in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain.
The survey included 1,000 respondents in each of the five countries: 1,081 in France, 1099 in Germany, 1,112 in Italy, 1,080 in Spain, and 1,036 in Poland, resulting in a theoretical margin of error around 3% (1.94%-3.04%) for country-level findings, and 1.33% for cross-country results.
Please find survey results here.
Appendix: Survey Questions Referenced
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
Please find press release also in German, French and Spanish
Related Articles
X and TikTok algorithms favour the far right at the expense of moderate parties
Paris, March 10, 2026 – Just days before the first round of the municipal elections, a new investigation by the nonprofit organization People vs. Big Tech
PvBT Statement condemning House Judiciary attacks against the DSA and European CSOs
People vs Big Tech and allies strongly condemn the recent report by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee attacking the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and
We are very pleased to welcome Nienke Palstra to the team
Nienke has extensive experience working on complex technology policy issues and building coalitions to ensure technology serves people — not entrenched
Most Read
Letter to Commissioner Breton: Tackling harmful recommender systems
Civil society organisations unite behind Coimisiún na Meán’s proposal to disable profiling-based recommender systems on social media video platforms
Prototyping User Empowerment – Towards DSA-compliant recommender systems
What would a healthy social network look like? Researchers, civil society experts, technologists and designers came together to imagine a new way forward
ESC Big Tech this Black Friday
People vs Big Tech has joined forces with high street brand Lush to raise money for our work to rein in the harmful power of the Big Tech corporations