249
This was reported on its website by one of the plaintiffs, the Civil Rights Society (GFF), Ukrinform reports.
The society, together with Democracy Reporting International (DRI), “is taking urgent action against X in the Berlin Regional Court: the platform refuses to provide DRI with publicly available data, such as reach or the number of likes and shares of posts,” the press release says.
DRI wants to use this data to investigate the influence of social media platforms on the upcoming federal elections in Germany and thus make the potential influence transparent to the public in the run-up to the elections.
The lawsuit is based on the Digital Services Act, which requires platforms to provide researchers with access to relevant data. The law requires large online platforms to immediately provide sociologists with access to publicly available data from their platform so that they can investigate systemic risks.
“Platforms are increasingly being used as weapons against democratic elections. We must protect ourselves from this by making manipulation mechanisms transparent and demanding that platforms take action against them,” said Simone Ruf, a lawyer and deputy director of the Center for User Rights.
DRI is investigating political discourse on social media platforms ahead of elections across Europe, including the upcoming parliamentary elections in Germany. “Other platforms have given us access to systematically monitor public debates on their platforms, but Company X has denied us this. Under the Digital Services Act, we believe it is our right to access data and strengthen the common good by showing how political campaigns develop on social media platforms,” said DRI Managing Director Michael Meyer-Rezende.
The owner of the social network X, American billionaire Elon Musk, openly supports one of the parties in the German elections, the far-right Alternative for Germany. The German government calls this an attempt to influence the elections, but has not taken any legislative measures against the platform. Several government agencies, such as the Ministry of Defense, have decided to abandon the use of X, while others, including the Chancellor's Office, continue to post on it.
