A social media company, X, founded by Elon Musk, has filed a lawsuit against the German government due to unjust censorship demands, violations of privacy and freedom of opinion. According to a statement from X’s department of global government affairs, the company has filed lawsuits in courts across Germany to challenge the legality of the censorship demands.
X has criticized Germany for making the highest number of legal demands for user data, with around 87% of these demands targeting crimes related to freedom of expression, as reported by the US magazine Breitbart. The company stated, “Germany, within the European Union, makes the most legal demands for user data at X, with around 87% of these demands targeting crimes related to freedom of expression. X believes that these legal demands for user data are unlawful and has both filed lawsuits in German federal and state courts against the government’s intrusion into the privacy and freedom of opinion of our users.”
Meanwhile, US Vice President J.D. Vance also criticized the German censorship regime during the Munich Security Conference, saying that Musk and his platform have become the target of the German political establishment. The reason for the persecution of X and its users is the abolition of numerous speech restrictions after Musk bought the then-known Twitter and his personal support for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
German Green Party’s chancellor candidate and current Economy Minister Robert Habeck even demanded the creation of a European-controlled social media platform within the next two years, stating that “Chinese algorithms and Elon Musk’s right-wing fantasies” are influencing “public opinion” and thus “undermining our democracy.” Therefore, Chinese and American tech companies in Germany need to be more regulated.
The likely next German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, threatened that Musk’s company would face “legal consequences” after the elections, saying, “What has happened in this election campaign cannot remain unchallenged. . It can be a political response. It can be a legal answer.”
The social media company has thus pre-empted the potential legal action with its lawsuit against the German government. Merz commented on the criticism of US Vice President Vance, stating, “We stick to the rules of our democratic institutions. Freedom of opinion remains freedom of opinion, but fake news, hate speech and crimes are subject to legal restrictions and independent courts.”
Following the reactions of the German political establishment to Vance’s criticism, the American CBS television network published footage of early morning police raids in Germany, for instance, about an allegedly “racist” meme in the internet. German prosecutors openly stated that in their country, people can go to jail for posting “lies” “malicious gossip” and even re-posting so-called “fake news.”
One of the legal bases for the censorship and restriction of freedom of opinion is the European Digital Services Act (DSA). According to a Tagesschau report, the DSA is aimed at combating disinformation and fake news. However, each EU country can decide for itself what it considers illegal content and large platforms are obligated to assess the risks of manipulation, for example, before elections and take appropriate measures.
X is already under investigation for violations of the Digital Services Act since December 2023, while the law remains controversial – not only in the US. While liberal, left and green EU lawmakers currently demand the rules be more strictly enforced, right-wing EU politicians question the independence of fact-checkers and speak of “censorship” as reported by the Tagesschau.
AfD’s European Parliament member Christine Anderson demanded the abolition of the rulebook, stating, “You fear [freedom of opinion] so much like the devil fears holy water. You fear it, for it threatens your power-holding deuteronomy. But the prerequisite of a democracy is, in fact, the free expression of opinion and therefore, this abominable DSA must be abolished.