Elon Musk’s plan to host an interview with the leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on his social media platform X has angered European politicians—but they will fight to stop him.
The tech billionaire is scheduled to speak with Alice Weidel, the leader of the AfD — Germany’s far-right party — on Thursday. He is currently in second place ahead of the February 23 general election on a platform that includes, among other things, “defending free speech”, tougher asylum laws, ending financial support for asylum seekers and ending planned restrictions on combustion engine cars.
Despite the party’s classification as a “suspected extremist organization” by Germany’s domestic intelligence services – something it has tried to fight in court – Musk said in December that “only the AfD can save Germany” and published an opinion piece in support of the party. in German newspapers.
“Don’t feed the troll,” outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told a German weekly Stern asked about Musk’s attack on himself and other politicians from the country, while German opposition leader Friedrich Merz called Musk’s interference “intrusive and pretentious” Media group Funke.
Outrage has crossed borders, with French President Emmanuel Macron also criticizing Musk and former European Commissioner Thierry Breton, saying an interview would give Weidel a “significant and valuable advantage”.
Still, live streaming wouldn’t break any laws if the content of the interview is legal, said Matthew Holman, technology, privacy and artificial intelligence partner at law firm Cripps, in emailed comments to CNBC, noting that it’s “an important part of expressing freedom of speech in a healthy democratic system.”
“However, if that was the only interview Musk conducted with German parties at the time, by not giving equal weight to all major viewpoints or promoting one party in a polarizing way, it could be that the lawmakers felt that X and Musk had a negative impact on civil discourse and the electoral process in Germany by interviewing only the AfD or the lack of an effective real-time third-party moderator,” Holman added.
CNBC has reached out to X for comment.
The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) — a sweeping piece of legislation aimed at regulating content on major online platforms, including X — states that platforms are responsible for assessing and mitigating risks to, among other things, civil discourse and election procedures.
European Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said in emailed comments that this includes “an obligation to analyze and mitigate risks arising from any preferential treatment or visibility given to content on a particular platform, including Mr Musk’s content on his own platform”.
He added that the Commission will hold a round table on January 24 to discuss the risks before the German elections, and will be joined by the Coordination of German Digital Services and very large Internet platforms, including X.
While there are currently only a few reports of X’s algorithm pushing content from the AfD, there are many reports of Musk’s own posts being favored, Simone Ruf, deputy head of the Center for User Rights at Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte, a German advocacy organization fundamental and human rights, he told CNBC by email.
“If he uses this treatment to support the AfD through political statements and livestreams featuring their candidate, this could easily violate the DSA,” she said.
Ruf also pointed out that the European Commission is already requesting information from X via is reducing its resources for content moderationmay determine temporary measures to prevent damage to users. “This could potentially involve disabling the recommendation algorithm for X until the federal election,” she suggested.
However, it is not clear whether the demands for such measures will succeed and how they might play out in practice.
German civil society initiative LobbyControl meanwhile claims that the interview could even be considered an illegal party donation. The group notes that Musk has made it clear that his goal is to boost the AfD and is using his platform’s resources to do so, with the interview likely to be broadcast more widely than regular X users.
“So we can really talk about political advertising in this case, because Platform X usually sells this kind of reach for a lot of money,” the group said in statementas translated by CNBC. Election campaigning through third parties is legally considered a donation, and donations from countries outside the EU are prohibited, LobbyControl noted.
This is not the first time that Musk has supported right-wing parties and figures in Europe. Until recentlyhe supported Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing Reform Party in the United Kingdom. He also launched tirade against the current British governmentled by Labour’s Keir Starmer, asking whether “America should ‘free the people of Britain'”.
