German Judge Removed, Elon Musk Wins In Court!

Elon Musk, managed to file an application to remove a judge in a German court (photo: x @politvidchannel)

JAKARTA - X, Elon Musk's social media platform, managed to file a request to remove a judge in a German court who handled legal battles between the company and two groups of activists regarding the distribution of election data. Court documents seen by Reuters on Friday, February 21 show this.

Earlier this month, a regional court in Berlin granted a request by two civil activist groups to force X to previously known as Twitter to provide real-time data access to German elections on February 23 to two days after the vote.

The two groups stated that they needed the data to track misinformation and disinformation ahead of the election.

X filed an appeal and a request to remove a judge in this case, arguing that the judge was "positively involved" with social media content from the plaintiff, namely Democracy Reporting International and Society for Civil Rights.

The court and the two activist groups confirmed the decision. Meanwhile, a request to remove the other two judges was rejected. White & Case, the US law firm representing X, declined to comment.

This legal battle comes amid tensions between the German political elite and Elon Musk, who called Chancellor incumbent Olaf Scholz an "odd man" and supported an Alternative far-right party for Germany (AfD).

Both activist groups argue that X has a legal obligation to provide easy access to information such as the reach of posts, share, and like information that can theoretically be accessed by clicking thousands of posts, but in practice it is impossible.

X also stated earlier this week that they would sue the German government in state and federal courts shortly before the election. The company called Germany the country in the European Union the most frequently asking for information about user data.

The global governing affairs Division X stated in a post: "X believes that the legal request for this user data is invalid and has filed cases in federal courts and German states to challenge the government's excess of authority over the privacy and freedom of expression of our users."

The German Ministry of Digital Affairs stated that they were aware of public announcements X, but until now no lawsuit has been filed.

The pretrial hearing will be held on February 27 at 09:30 GMT with two remaining judges, and a decision is expected to be announced on the same day, according to other court documents seen by Reuters.

The date of this trial means that activist researchers will not get real-time data access within their critical time frame. However, this decision could set a precedent for similar cases in the future.

Separately, tech billionaire Elon Musk and his assistants at the newly formed US Government Efficiency Department (DOGE) are pursuing a drastic reduction in federal bureaucracy on the orders of President Donald Trump.

This case highlights the challenges facing social media platforms in balancing demands for transparency, user privacy, and freedom of expression. The final decision in this case could have broad implications for social media regulations in Germany and the European Union.