The richest man in the world Elon Musk can influence elections in Europe as well. That’s why the EU can now use EU laws to bring Musk and his owned platform X to justice.
This is the opinion of Sitra’s director of international operations Kristo Lehtonen. In his work, he is familiar with the EU’s digital regulation and democracy.
In recent weeks, Musk has openly challenged Europe. He has attacked European political leaders in very aggressive terms on social media.
Musk has been invited by the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as a “jerk” and the Federal President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier as an “anti-democratic dictator”.
Even greater concern in Europe has arisen from the fact that Musk visibly supports far-right parties, such as Germany’s AfD party.
Defending the far right and claims of British ‘tyranny’
Lehtonen has been confused by Musk’s X behavior.
From other owners of social platforms, Musk is distinguished by his understated style and very direct political activism under his own name.
– It is very possible that Musk wants to influence the European elections. He has so much influence at the moment, says Lehtonen.
Musk has also attacked the British Prime Minister for a long time Keir Starmer against.
He has claimed that Starmer failed to fight pedophiles in his previous role and is “complicit in the rape of Britain”.
Yesterday, Monday, Musk asked on X whether “America should free the British people from tyrannical rule, yes or no”.
Musk has also supported the British right-wing populist Reform UK party.
In the EU and Britain, there has been an extensive discussion in recent days about what could be done about Musk’s attacks.
Musk can use the same means in Europe as in the United States
According to Sitra’s Kristo Lehtonen, it is now worth considering, above all, the means by which Musk might influence the upcoming European elections. For example, the German parliamentary elections are in February.
According to him, Musk can use the same means as in the US presidential elections in November.
Lehtonen gives a three-point list of Musk’s operating model:
In the United States, Musk spread false information about the presidential election on his own X account. He generously financed Trump’s election campaign. In addition, he is suspected of manipulating X’s algorithms so that conservative and pro-Trump content was highlighted.
Among other things, a newspaper of The Washington Post according to the analysis, the conservatives received clearly more attention in X during the election than the democrats.
According to Lehtonen, this is the most worrying.
– If something similar were to appear in the European elections, it might be against EU legislation, Lehtonen points out.
EU law can even limit the use of X
In Lehtonen’s opinion, the EU’s digital services regulation (DSA) gives the EU good opportunities to intervene in the activities of digital giants. The regulation came into force just under a year ago.
According to it, the EU can, for example, demand a report from X on how visibility on its platform is determined.
This is significant, because traditionally X, like other social media platforms, have kept their algorithms strictly secret.
– In addition, the social platform must offer an outsider the opportunity to assess whether the algorithm is being manipulated for political purposes, says Lehtonen.
If X’s actions are found to be in breach of the DSA, the result could be a huge fine. It can be up to six percent of the company’s global turnover.
Even limiting the entire service in the EU area could come into question in an extreme situation.
The EU can demand the removal of disinformation and such lies from the platform that may affect voting behavior.
Musk sniffed the Finnish scientist
Musk has announced that he intends to interview the leader of the German AfD party in X himself Alice Weidel this week.
It is a perfectly permissible political discussion in itself, but the EU and Germany are worried about how the algorithms of X, owned by Musk, will then favor the message of the AfD.
German Chancellor Scholz stated over the weekend that it is not new that his party is criticized. What is new is that the reviewer is a global media entrepreneur whose secret algorithms shape public opinion.
Scholz also stated over the weekend that he would avoid commenting on Musk’s messages.
– It’s not worth feeding the troll, Scholz stated.
Both the British Prime Minister and the French President Emmanuel Macron criticized Musk’s growing power in European politics over the Epiphany weekend.
In Britain, Musk has already managed to capture a large part of the political airspace. The child abuse scandal raised by Musk years ago has dominated the country’s political debate in recent days.
Simply keeping quiet about Musk’s messages can therefore be difficult.
Finland has also received its share of Musk’s flood of messages.
When a Finn Joni Askola wrote a message to X on Sunday evening in English criticizing Musk for spreading disinformation, the world’s richest man replied to the message simply “fu retard”.
Loosely translated into Finnish, the message means “smell f***** disabled”.
Musk also shared a graphic showing Finnish rape statistics.
Elon Musk is currently very closely involved with the person who will become the President of the United States on January 20 Donald Trump’s with. An important post in Trump’s administration has also been planned for Musk.
There is a rift between the Trump administration and European leaders even before the incoming president has even taken office.