What NBA star LeBron James, iconic horror author Stephen King, and left-leaning British newspapers say Guardian Is it normal? They have all left X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, since Donald Trump’s election victory in November 2024. And they are far from the only ones. On Friday, more than 60 German-language universities announced they would no longer use the X.
Run by the world’s richest Trump supporter, Elon Musk, the network is not gaining support from users outside the MAGA political camp, and – despite the billionaire’s pledge to keep the platform “politically neutral” until 2022 – many observers believes he is actively working to turn X into an extremist megaphone.
Experts consulted by DW said there is no way to reliably tell whether the system has been updated to promote right-wing posts since the beginning of the Musk era, because its algorithms are constantly being tweaked. Is and is responding to the changing user base. However, it is clear that many banned accounts were reinstated under Musk despite previous violations, including hate speech, misinformation and anti-Semitism. Experts also point out that as more liberal and leftist users leave the platform, the overall discussion will continue to shift to the right.
“Whatever the reason, the result for users is the same: There is significantly more far-right content on the platform and in people’s recommended feeds,” social scientist and digital media researcher Colin Henry told DW.
Musk also took advantage of his position as Also referred to.
‘Don’t feed the troll’
Now turning his attention to politics with the EU, Musk told his more than 211 million followers that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is an “idiot”, and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier – a man whose office is mostly ceremonial. – is a “tyrant.” Musk publicly endorsed the nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD), saying it was the only party that could “save Germany.” On Thursday, Musk chatted live on X with Elise Weidel, AfD co-leader and chancellor candidate in Germany’s upcoming elections.
Musk’s support for Trump and his ongoing interference in EU politics has sparked outrage in Germany. However, Musk’s post received little more than a finger-wagging from Scholz, who said his approach was simple: “Don’t feed the trolls.”
Scholz told Stern magazine, “It is the will of the citizens that matters in Germany, not the erratic statements of American billionaires.”
Worth the effort?
Science fiction author and Internet activist Cory Doctorow told DW that Musk already has enough power to influence the vote in a tight race. Doctorow said this influence is partly due to the media recognizing him as “a hero of sorts” for many years.
He said Musk can use
“Simply, a very small number of people are needed to show up to the delicate balances that party advisers are calculated to disrupt,” Doctorow said.
Doctorow said Musk’s rise was a possible result of a decades-long effort to circumvent monopoly laws in North America and Europe that made him “so rich that it’s too big to go to jail, too big to fail and no one “Too big to care what he thinks.”
And, although Scholz has attempted to avoid engaging with Musk, Doctorow said publicly fighting against someone “who has a huge audience” could actually be a great political strategy for the German chancellor. Is.
“Musk is not very smart,” Doctorow said. “He has a lot of followers. A lot of them don’t really know much about him: they’ve just absorbed the legend – and if you’re good at that you can debunk the legend in real time.”
“However, if you think it sucks, the last thing you want is to be humiliated in front of 200 million people. … So I think it really depends on the politician.”
A German X-odus?
On Wednesday, German anti-discrimination commissioner Farda Ataman urged the government to abandon X, calling the network “an instrument of political influence by the world’s richest man.”
“X is not a serious platform,” Ataman said.
Several high-profile organizations and users in Germany have already left X, including the country’s highest criminal court on Thursday. Fabian Mehring, the digitalization minister of Bavaria, Germany’s richest state, dropped the X over Musk’s support for the AfD. Former Berlin state secretary Savannah Chebli walked away from the network in early December along with federal MPs Jamila Schaefer and Misbah Khan and dozens of other prominent voices, with the group saying that X had become a place of “censorship, racism, anti-Semitism and a right-wing agenda Is” -setting.”
The Center for Documentation of Nazi Crimes in Munich and the city’s Jewish Museum also decided to stop using the platform, along with dozens of other semi-official and non-governmental bodies, including three Bundesliga football teams.
The government has not left
Responding to calls this week to abandon X, German officials said the government had decided not to do so for the time being.
“We have to be where people go for information,” government spokesman Steffen Habestreit told reporters. “But, of course, you always have to ask yourself whether the environment for this is still sustainable, and we’re asking ourselves that question. So far, we’ve answered that by saying that it’s a good idea to withdraw from this platform. The losses will far outweigh the gains.”
Henry, an American social scientist, said that politicians who were not aligned with the far right were rapidly disappearing within the X anyway.
“Audiences are either gone, or, when officials need to communicate real-time information during a natural disaster, they delve into conspiracy theories or hate speech,” Stephan said.
Confronted by reports that Musk is attempting to interfere in the election, Hebestreit said the fact is that billionaires also have the right to express themselves.
He added, “At the same time, it is also true that multi-billionaires are not necessarily smarter and more knowledgeable than others. They may also be talking nonsense.” “If you look at Platform
Edited by: Robert Mudge
