Green Party MP and German Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth has said that X needs to be “regulated” to protect democracy, Brussels Signal reports.
Speaking to Table.Media on January 2, Roth said that quality journalism needs better protection and that more regulation is needed to control X.
She noted that her party had pushed for a number of related laws such as the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, the European Media Freedom Act and the Digital Services Act, emphasising that the latter makes the EC the regulator. Roth said:
“The Commission must now assume this new responsibility with the national regulators. We need strong European media laws that ensure the functioning of a democratic public sphere. Especially because the so-called platforms are not platforms for other people’s opinions alone, but massively spread their own opinions.”
Her party’s leader Franziska Brantner demanded that the European Commission investigate the platform’s activities for possible manipulation of public opinion on X.
In an interview with the Tagesspiegel newspaper, she asked whether X owner Elon Musk had customised the platform’s algorithms “so that his posts, for example, appear always and everywhere.” She said she wanted the EC to investigate that possibility. Brantner stressed:
“Even the richest man in the world must abide by our law. With the Digital Services Act, we have the opportunity to tackle this at the European level.”
German politicians were concerned about the recent spat between German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Musk after Steinmeier officially dissolved the country’s parliament ahead of a snap election in February.
Steinmeier complained that he believed Musk and X had influenced the election campaign, calling it foreign interference and a “threat to democracy.”
US multi-billionaire Musk, who publicly backed the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in an op-ed in Die Welt newspaper, responded and said:
“Steinmeier is an anti-democratic tyrant! Shame on him.”
Regarding the altercation, Roth said:
“The Federal President represents our country. Anyone who denigrates him denigrates Germany. Maybe someone should tell Mr Musk: Wanting to make money here on the one hand and showing no respect for the country and its representatives on the other hand doesn’t go together. When great economic power and power of opinion are combined, it is not good for a democracy.”
She also added:
“That’s why journalists are specifically protected in our media regulations. Journalism is different from using a combination of great economic power and communication power to undermine and undermine democracies. This is extremely dangerous for democratic forms of society.”
