German Greens MP and Minister of State for Culture, Claudia Roth, says X must be “regulated” to “protect democracy”.
Speaking to Table.Media on January 2, Roth said quality journalism needed better protection and that tighter regulation was needed to control X.
She said her party had pushed for several related laws, such as the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, the European Media Freedom Act and the Digital Services Act, stressing that the latter made the EC a regulatory authority.
“The Commission must now assume this new responsibility with the national regulators,” Roth said.
“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 leader Franziska Brantner has demanded that the European Commission investigate the platform for possible manipulations of public opinion on X.
In an interview with the newspaper Tagesspiegel she asked if X owner Elon Musk had set the platform’s algorithms so “that his posts, for example, always and everywhere appear”. She said she wanted the EC to investigate that possibility.
“Even the richest man in the world must abide by our law,” Brantner stressed. “With the Digital Services Act, we have the opportunity to tackle this at the European level.”
German politicians have been concerned following a recent spat between German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Musk after Steinmeier officially dissolved the country’s parliament ahead of snap elections in February.
Steinmeier had complained about the what he saw as the influence Musk and X had on the election campaign, calling it foreign interference and a “threat to democracy”.
US multi-billionaire Musk, who had publicly endorsed the hard-right Alternative for Germany Party (AfD) in an op-ed in Die Welt, hit back 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.
“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,” Roth said.
“This is extremely dangerous for democratic forms of society.”
