or it could be legal, or possibly target Musk’s gigafactory.
Germany & the EU are already exploring the possibility of charging him with multiple crimes.
Social media platforms like X have been under scrutiny by the European Commission, the main executive body of the European Union (EU), for allegedly failing to help prevent election interference. X was already accused by the commission in July of allegedly breaching the Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into effect in 2022 to make very large platforms and search engines give researchers access to data to research systemic risks.
Newsweek reported last month that the administration of Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, was investigating whether Musk's support for the AfD on the platform where he has over 200 million followers could constitute an illegal party donation as campaigning by third parties is considered a party donation under German law.
In late December 2024, Musk published an opinion piece in the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag defending the AfD. Eva Marie Kogel, the paper's opinion editor, resigned in protest. He also participated in a livestream on X with AfD leader Alice Weidel early last month where he encouraged voters to support the far-right party in Germany's February elections.
On Friday, Politico, which said it saw the Berlin Regional Court's decision, reported that the court issued its ruling that X must provide researchers with the data on Thursday after the Berlin-based advocacy groups Democracy Reporting International (DRI) and the Society for Civil Rights (GFF) filed a lawsuit earlier this week. The lawsuit alleged that X prevented the tracking of potential election interference by not giving the advocacy groups access to engagement data such as likes, shares and visibility metrics, according to Politico. Politico also reported that the court ordered X to pay legal costs and a nearly $6,200 procedural fine.
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