German groups take aim at Musk's X

Activists in Germany have complained billionaire technology guru Elon Musk's social media site X is failing to comply with the law and could, therefore, be unfairly influencing the upcoming federal election.

Two groups, the Society for Civil Rights, or GFF, and Democracy Reporting International, or DRI, are taking their grievance to the Berlin Regional Court, claiming X is in breach of European law because it has not given them the data they need to track disinformation.

The organizations are seeking an interim injunction granting them access to the data and say the issue is especially important in the run-up to Germany's federal election on Feb 23, which will feature a serious challenge from the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party.

Musk, who is the world's richest person and a key part of United States President Donald Trump's administration, hosted the AfD's co-leader Alice Weidel on X in January and posted at the time: "Only the AfD can save Germany!"

Michael Meyer-Resende, from DRI, said as the groups launched their lawsuit this week: "Other platforms have granted us access to systematically track public debates on their platforms, but X has refused to do so."

DRI and GFF, both non-profit organizations, claim X should provide benchmark information such as how wide-ranging posts have been and how many likes and shares they have received, but has not done so.

They say it is required to do so under the European Union's Digital Services Act, "without undue delay".

The Reuters news agency said nations throughout Europe are on high alert for evidence of systematic online disinformation following a scandal that unfolded last year and ended with the results of a presidential election in Romania being annulled over fears voters had been intentionally swayed by industrial-scale online misinformation.

Reuters quoted Simone Ruf, deputy director of the GFF's Center for User Rights, as saying: "Platforms are increasingly being weaponized against democratic elections. We must defend ourselves."

Euronews quoted Ruf, who is also a lawyer, as saying the groups want to see "manipulation mechanisms" made transparent and online platforms compelled to "take action against them".

The groups said they plan to use any information they obtain from X in a wider, three-year research project that will look at online activity around a wide range of European elections, to see whether any nations or groups have attempted to influence their outcome.

The groups claim in their lawsuit that they filled out X's online form requesting access to data for their research in April 2024 and were denied it in November.

The lawsuit comes as the EU continues its own investigation into X over other possible breaches of the bloc's Digital Services Act.

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