. Freedom of expression is protected. But the old Twitter. In this way, the position of the European Commission can be summarized in the face of the repeated support that the richest man in the world provides to far-right organizations in Europe, such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, second in voting intention in the elections that Germany will celebrate next February 23rd. Brussels is reluctant to talk about foreign interference in the face of Musk’s repeated statements or the broadcast through the digital platform of the talk he will have on Thursday through the social network with the co-president of AfD and candidate for chancellor of the ultra party, Alice Weidel. However, it does insist that the algorithms and operation of that same platform must be neutral.
of each country has caused anger and nervousness in equal measure in the affected countries, especially Germany and the United Kingdom. In the German case, we add the proximity of the elections and the fact that Musk, the greatest supporter of the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, has explicitly opted for the AfD, a party so ultra that it brought several of its allies into Parliament. European Parliament to expel him from his group and veto his entry into this new legislature.
Added to this is that Brussels has already preliminarily concluded that X does not comply with the EU Digital Services Regulation (DSA). and accountability in relation to content moderation and advertising. The file remains open.
“Musk can express his personal views, his political opinions in the EU. It is your right. Now, when you have a platform, it is necessary to ensure that the platform operates within the legal limits and that the platform is not improperly used in electoral processes,” when asked repeatedly about the position of the Community Executive regarding the statements by the South African billionaire.
It has been clarified that the conversation that he will have live through X with the leader of the AfD, Alice Weidel, is not something prohibited by the DSA either. However, he added that “in this general context, the Commission, together with the coordinators of German digital services, will organize a round table on January 24 in which civil society organizations and large digital platforms will participate. , including X”.
This position, for the moment, is more aseptic than what several political leaders in Germany are expressing. The candidate of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Friedrich Merz, the favorite according to the polls, showed his indignation with Musk in December by talking about unusual foreign interference coming from a friendly country, something that has special value since the technology billionaire is someone very close to Trump. The German president himself, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has also linked the attitude of the owner of X with “a danger to democracy.”
They were joined this Monday by the Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Store, who pointed out: “I find it worrying that a man with enormous access to social networks and the media and with enormous economic resources is directly involved in the internal affairs of other countries. “This is not how things should be done between democracies and allied countries.”
X has several pending issues with the European Commission for its misinformation control policy since Elon Musk bought the social network in 2022. The procedure that was opened at the end of 2023 took a step forward in the middle of 2024, when it sent to the company its preliminary conclusions in which it accuses it of breaking the law. In addition, This has not prevented files from being opened, as has been the case of TikTok for what happened during the Romanian presidential elections, canceled after the first round was held after having detected signs of interference to through the Chinese platform.
