{"id":418381,"date":"2025-02-10T19:26:58","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T18:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/02\/10\/germania-elezioni-x-accesso-dati-dsa\/"},"modified":"2025-02-10T21:16:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T20:16:44","slug":"elections-in-germany-x-will-have-to-provide-researchers-with-access-to-sensitive-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/02\/10\/elections-in-germany-x-will-have-to-provide-researchers-with-access-to-sensitive-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Elections in Germany, X will have to provide researchers with access to sensitive data"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels\u2014Now X is also involved in the\u00a0German election campaign<\/strong>, which is getting hotter and hotter. With just two weeks to go until the fateful date of Feb. 23, the German judiciary is demanding immediate access to\u00a0some electorally sensitive data<\/strong>\u00a0from the platform owned by\u00a0Elon Musk.<\/strong>\u00a0Meanwhile, the billionaire right-hand man of\u00a0Donald Trump<\/strong>\u00a0has explicitly\u00a0endorsed<\/em>\u00a0the pro-Russian\u00a0ultra-right<\/strong>\u00a0AfD.<\/span><\/p>\n

Musk’s activism<\/h3>\n

For months,\u00a0concerns about the integrity of the democratic process<\/strong>\u00a0have continued to mount in Germany in the run-up to the\u00a0early elections on Feb. 23<\/strong>, especially regarding the content disseminated on\u00a0social platforms<\/strong>. Starting with\u00a0X<\/strong>, owned by\u00a0Elon Musk<\/strong>, the richest man on the planet, who is playing a crucial role in the\u00a0new star-studded administration<\/strong>\u00a0led by\u00a0Donald Trump<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In what is undoubtedly the most eventful election campaign in many decades<\/strong> to date, he has already burst\u00a0into German politics<\/strong> by publicly incensing Alice Weidel<\/strong>\u2014co-leader, along with Tino Chrupalla<\/strong> of the post-Nazi, pro-Russian and xenophobic ultra-right of Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland <\/i>(AfD)<\/strong>\u2014on at least two occasions, moreover after performing what seemed\u00a0<\/a><\/span>to be a (double) Nazi salute at the inauguration ceremony<\/strong> of the 47th US president.<\/p>\n

\"Elon<\/a>
Elon Musk as he waves to his supporters with his right arm outstretched during Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony in Washington, Jan. 20, 2025 (photo: Angela Weiss\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First, there was a\u00a0direct confrontation right on X<\/strong>, during which the South African billionaire\u00a0said clearly and categorically<\/a>\u00a0that “only the AfD can save Germany.” Then, Musk made a surprise\u00a0live connection\u00a0<\/a>at the\u00a0launch event of Weidel & Co.<\/strong>‘s election campaign, arguing, among other things, that in Germany, “you focus too much on the guilt of the past” and that “you need to move beyond that.”\u00a0The AfD is currently the second party in the polls<\/strong>, with a stable support of around 20 per cent<\/strong> for months.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Court’s ruling<\/h3>\n

The latest episode involving Trump’s new right-hand man dates back to Feb. 6, when the\u00a0Berlin District Court<\/strong>\u00a0ruled\u00a0<\/a>that\u00a0X must “immediately” release information<\/strong>\u00a0that would allow researchers to study and\u00a0track the spread of political disinformation<\/strong>\u00a0regarding the German election campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ruling came in response to an urgent request filed by two civil rights organizations<\/strong>\u2014the Gesellschaft f\u00fcr Freiheitsrechte (GFF) and Democracy Reporting International\u00a0<\/i>(DRI)\u2014actively tracking misinformation ahead of the imminent ballot box date<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n

We took @X<\/a> to court. And we won! \u2696\ufe0f<\/p>\n

The courts ruled that X must urgently grant us access to their publicly available data via their API.<\/p>\n

This access is critical for our analysis of online public discourse ahead of the upcoming German elections.<\/p>\n

Here’s what’s happened 1\/3 pic.twitter.com\/oPVkFHrJeo<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Democracy Reporting International (@DemocracyR) February 7, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to the two groups,\u00a0X has allegedly prevented researchers from monitoring and tracking potential election interference<\/strong>\u00a0by denying access to\u00a0data related to user engagement<\/strong>\u00a0with content on the platform.\u00a0If established,<\/span>\u00a0this behaviour\u00a0would violate current European legislation, namely the\u00a0<\/span>Digital Services Act (DSA)<\/strong>, which regulates the performance of online service providers, such as\u00a0<\/span>social networks<\/strong>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

From X to Tesla<\/h3>\n

Foreign interference<\/strong>\u00a0in the electoral processes of EU member states is, after all, an extremely hot topic at this historical stage. This is especially true after\u00a0Romania’s Constitutional Court resoundingly annulled the first round of the presidential elections,<\/strong>\u00a0in which the independent candidate\u00a0C\u0103lin Georgescu<\/strong>\u00a0allegedly benefited<\/a>\u00a0from a\u00a0Russian influence campaign<\/strong>, active mainly on\u00a0TikTok<\/strong>\u00a0(which has come\u00a0under investigation\u00a0<\/a>by the EU executive).<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Musk’s other core business is also doing rather poorly these days on the Old Continent. Tesla’s sales in Germany<\/strong>, where the company’s only<\/strong> European gigafactory is located (whose expansion plans have unleashed<\/a>\u00a0wide protests last summer), have declined by nearly 60 per cent year-on-year in January alone<\/strong>. A vertical drop that some attribute<\/a> to the South African billionaire’s pro-AfD political activism<\/strong>, while\u00a0others speculate may have to do with the imminent market launch of the new Model Y<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The political debate<\/h3>\n

Be that as it may, what is beyond dispute is that the temperature of political debate in Germany has soared<\/strong> in recent weeks, a relatively unusual development for a country whose ruling class has traditionally gone to great lengths to reassure voters and avoid drastic stances<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Weidel<\/a>
The co-presidents of Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland, Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla (photo: Tobias Schwarz\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The point of no return, at the level of political dialectics, was reached at the end of January when the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU\/CSU)<\/strong> and likely future federal chancellor, Friedrich Merz<\/strong>, attempted (unsuccessfully) to get the Bundestag<\/i> to pass with AfD<\/strong> votes a bill providing for a crackdown on irregular immigration<\/strong>, after having the Chamber adopt<\/a>\u00a0some non-binding texts on the subject a few days earlier precisely with\u00a0the support of the ultra-right.<\/p>\n

Merz has been accused from many quarters (including by former Chancellor Angela Merkel<\/strong>, his party partner) of breaking the octogenarian tradition of the Brandmauer<\/i><\/strong>, the cordon sanitaire that has prevented the far-right from approaching power<\/strong> since World War II. When hundreds of thousands of demonstrators<\/strong> mobilised<\/a> to protest against the CDU’s “flirtation” with the ultra-right<\/strong>, the Christian Democratic leader found nothing better to do than brand his fellow citizens with “hypocrisy”<\/strong> (because, he says, they would not have demonstrated with the same ardour in opposition to anti-Semitism).<\/p>\n

Thus, in the first and last televised debate<\/strong> aired yesterday<\/a> (Feb. 9) between Merz and his main challenger, outgoing Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz<\/strong>, the confrontation erupted into personal attacks<\/strong> and reciprocal accusations<\/strong>, mainly on the issues of immigration<\/strong> and the stagnant economy of the country<\/strong>, which has now been in recession for two years and whose industrial base is in deep crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"election<\/a>
Top concerns of German voters (Source: Deutsche Welle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the management of migration flows, both Merz’s Union and Scholz’s SPD have hardened their positions. <\/strong>Still, the\u00a0Christian Democrats seem to be increasingly chasing the ultra-right<\/strong> as to intransigence toward irregular migrants, whom many in the CDU (as in the AfD) would like to reject at the borders in open violation of EU and international law<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A possible DSA violation is the latest problem to befall Elon Musk, owner of the social network as well as SpaceX and Tesla (which is experiencing poor sales in Europe). Friedrich Merz’s shift to the right in the CDU continues to hold sway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":418374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26267,26087,29715,26088,29635,26268,26091],"class_list":["post-418381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-dsa-en","tag-election-germany-2025-en","tag-elon-musk-en","tag-friedrich-merz-en","tag-olaf-scholz-en","tag-x-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418381"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418393,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418381\/revisions\/418393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}