German Civil Activists Win In Election Case Against Elon Musk's X

JAKARTA The German court ruled that social media platform X, which is owned by Elon Musk, must provide researchers with access to information to track the spread of information that could affect elections.

The Berlin district court issued the decision on Friday 7 February after accepting an urgent lawsuit from two civil rights groups requiring data to monitor misinformation and disinformation ahead of Germany's national election on February 23.

"Waiting longer to access this data will damage the applicant's research project, because the period before the election is very crucial," said the court's decision.

The court also stated that X did not respond to a request for information previously filed, and ordered the company to bear court fees of 6,000 euros (approximately IDR 96 million).

"This is a big victory for the freedom of our research and democracy," said Simone Ruf, lawyer for the German Society for Civil Rights (GFF), one of the plaintiffs in this case.

Until now, X has not provided an official response regarding the court's decision.

X Must Open Election Data Access

GFF together with Democracy Reporting International argued that X has an obligation based on EU law to provide organized data access for researchers. Information such as the range of uploads, the number of shares, and the number of likes are indeed available, but it is difficult to access en masse because it must be traced manually through thousands of uploads.

With this decision, X is required to provide access to the data from now on until some time after the election takes place.

The decision is increasingly relevant given concerns over the spread of misinformation in X, especially after Elon Musk publicly supported the far-right party Alternative f\"ur Deutschland (AfD), which currently occupies second place in the poll behind conservative parties.

"Only AfD can save Germany," Musk wrote in his post in January, before holding a live interview with AfD leader Alice Weidel.

This court decision is considered an important step in ensuring transparency of information and reducing the risk of voter manipulation ahead of the German elections.