The Musk Effect: X’s impact on Germany’s election
AlgorithmWatch and the DFRLab have produced new research on X during German elections. We analyzed X posts by German politicians as well as prominent anti-far-right organizations, and found that the most viral posts are dominated by references to Elon Musk and his support for the AfD.
Photo by Dima Solomin on Unsplash
| This research was co-authored by Oliver Marsh, Head of Tech Research at AlgorithmWatch, and Mark Scott, Senior Resident Fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab's (DFRLab) of the Atlantic Council. The two authors jointly developed research hypotheses, analyses, and the report. Data was provided from DFRLab via the tool Meltwater. Each organizations’ work was conducted using their own separate funding. |
The dominance of top German election content on X by its hyper-partisan owner in the United States, as well as troubling observations around content moderation and transparency, raise serious concerns about X’s role in the public sphere.
By far, the most engaged-with content in our dataset came from AfD leader Alice Weidel talking about Musk’s support of her party, and seems to be spreading largely amongst English-language audiences. We also analyzed content from accounts associated with the “Ban the AfD” campaign, although many of these are no longer active on the platform due to Musk’s leadership. Amongst the anti-AfD content, the most viral post depicted Musk performing a gesture, which has been compared to a Nazi salute, projected onto the side of the Brandenburg Tesla factory. Worryingly, this post seems to have been removed by X in ways that hid the removal from the post’s author, the Center for Political Beauty. This could be a violation of the EU’s Digital Services Act. X has not responded to our questions about this issue.
Apart from the dominance of Musk as a personality, we did not see clear evidence of underlying algorithmic bias or other issues which we would consider “systemic risks to electoral processes” under the Digital Services Act. The extra attention gained by Alice Weidel does not seem to have rebounded onto other AfD politicians.
Our research focused specifically on X posts by German politicians and anti-AfD organizations. Other research has taken other approaches, including creating new accounts and studying the content they have shown, and has come to varying conclusions. Our argument is that any support from the X, if it is present, does not seem to be boosting engagement on AfD politicians more generally. However, we must continue to monitor other aspects of the platform to establish other risks, including attacks on minority groups and polarizing content, which is not purely limited to politicians and elections. More transparency is needed for this – but X is currently appealing against a lawsuit by Democracy Reporting International and the Center for User Rights in Berlin, to stop access to data which is needed to fully analyze their platform.
Given the increasing willingness of other Big Tech executives to follow Musk’s lead, this concern need not be limited to X. We continue to advocate for the importance of laws which force platforms to take their role in democracy seriously. We must also consider how the opportunities of online spaces for democratic discussion can be developed independently of the personal interests of private executives.
This research was co-authored by Oliver Marsh, Head of Tech Research at AlgorithmWatch, and Mark Scott, Senior Resident Fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab's (DFRLab) of the Atlantic Council.
Read more on our policy & advocacy work on the Digital Services Act.