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Brussels (ANSA) – Europe is beginning to rebel against Elon Musk’s outbursts on X – which he owns – and is watching with concern the next steps of the world’s richest man, especially in the context of the elections in Germany, where the Tesla boss has openly sided with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) so much that, next Thursday, he seems determined to organize a streaming with its leader Alice Weidel.
Emmanuel Macron, in his speech to the French ambassadors, without mentioning the visionary South African-born magnate, labeled him as the head of a “new reactionary international.” “Ten years ago – he said – if we had been told that the owner of one of the world’s main social networks would intervene directly in elections, including those in Germany, who would have imagined it?”
Macron has been spared Musk’s wrath and instead hosted him at Notre Dame for the reopening ceremony. The exact opposite of what is happening to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, accused by Musk of “complicity” in the ‘historic’ sexual abuses committed on girls by Asian-origin pedophile gangs in England. “Stop spreading lies and misinformation,” declared Starmer. He was then again attacked by the X boss as a “totally despicable man.”
For its part, the European Commission has issued a first warning. A spokesperson has stated that “the Commission’s services, together with the German digital services coordinators, have decided that civil society organizations and major online platforms, including X, will host a round table on January 24 of this year, before the vote in Germany, to discuss the risks ahead of such elections.”
The streaming with Weidel, added the EU executive, “could very well become part of the ongoing investigation on X” but first it will have to be seen if it really takes place and what the “modalities” will be. The key lies in the algorithm: will it improperly push the streaming? And more broadly: will it favor the AfD in the election campaign? The DSA provides for fines of up to 6% of turnover if violations are confirmed. It goes without saying that using the bazooka against Musk is no walk in the park, for a thousand reasons, the first of which is Donald Trump (January 6).