Musk interview with Weidel: Bundestag examines violation of the law – EU could impose heavy penalty
Stand:01/09/2025, 04:53 PM
By: Paula Völkner, Stephanie Munk
The Elon Musk interview with Alice Weidel on Thursday live on X is making waves: The stream is being closely monitored, the call for stricter rules is loud.
Brussels/Berlin – The richest man in the world, Elon Musk, will offer the AfD chancellor candidate Alice Weidel an unprecedented platform on January 9: Musk will conduct an interview with Weidel on his social media service X and the approximately 240 million users worldwide can be there live.
It is clear that Musk is not a neutral interview partner for Weidel: Shortly before the Bundestag election, he already made a recommendation to vote for the AfD, while at the same time insulting Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Federal President Steinmeier. And the day before the live interview on X, he proclaimed Alice Weidel a possible German chancellor in an X post.
Elon Musk and Alice Weidel live with interview on X: What are the limits of German law?Many are wondering: Is Elon Musk allowed to do this? It warns against undue influence in the election campaign in Germany, especially by a billionaire man who is based in the USA and pursues his own interests as one of the closest confidants of future US President Donald Trump.
Media law expert Matthias Kettemann from the University of Innsbruck says: Musk is allowed to do so. "No one can forbid Musk to organize such a conversation," the legal expert told FR.de of IPPEN. MEDIA. Elon Musk is "the owner of a powerful communication platform, but not the owner of a television station and not a journalist subject to German media law," he explains.
Interview by Musk and Weidel live on X: Media law does not apply to online platforms In Germany, strict rules apply to how much space broadcasters are allowed to give the individual parties before a federal election, but these neutrality obligations would not apply to online platforms. This is because "online platforms are still quite new and media law does not quite get a grip on them," says Kettemann.
However, Musk's interview with Weidel on X could violate the party law and be considered an illegal party donation. The Bundestag has announced that it will examine this.
Musk interview live on X with Alice Weidel: EU has means to punish platform
The EU also has instruments at its disposal not to prevent Musk from the Weidel interview, but at least to punish him for it afterwards. That's why a team of 150 people will follow the live conversation between Musk and Weidel closely.
The EU wants to control which algorithm X uses to distribute the livestream with Musk and Weidel to its more than 100 million users in the EU, according to a report in the US magazine Politico.
Will Elon Musk give Alice Weidel an advantage before the Bundestag election with live interview?The focus is on whether Musk gives Alice Weidel an unfair competitive advantage over other candidates before the federal election in Germany with the live interview. On the one hand, the algorithm could be manipulated in such a way that content that Musk himself publishes – such as the Weidel interview – is played out more prominently than others. Or it could be designed in such a way that it gives Alice Weidel a greater reach on X than candidates such as Friedrich Merz, Olaf Scholz or Robert Habeck. "This would be considered an unfair advantage and could be considered a violation of EU social media law," Politico said.
Because: Within the EU, there are rules for online platforms such as X. They are written down in the EU's Social Media Act and the Digital Services Act. The EU has "far-reaching powers" to control whether Musk follows these rules in the case of the livestream with Weidel. It can search X's offices, view internal correspondence and demand access to the algorithm for disseminating the Weidel interview.
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Musk could be fined after Weidel interview on XThere will be no penalties for Musk immediately if he violates EU rules, it is said. But during the live interview with Weidel, evidence may be collected to substantiate an ongoing EU case against X. The European Community officially accused Elon Musk in July 2024 of failing to comply with EU rules on X. A decision by the EU Commission on this is to come soon.
If the Commission punishes Musk for his behavior on X, it would be a first in the application of the Digital Services Act. Musk could then be ordered to pay six percent of X's global annual turnover as a fine, for example.
Legal scholar Kettemann also sees IPPEN. MEDIA in EU regulations to curb Musk's influence in German politics. Since 2024, transparency and targeting of political advertising on online platforms such as X have been subject to clear rules.
Is live interview of Elon Musk and Alice Weidel an illegal party donation?
nother starting point for taking action against Musk and his live interview with Alice Weidel is seen by the organization Lobby Control, which campaigns against influence on politics. "The planned conversation between Elon Musk and Alice Weidel could even be an illegal party donation," writes Aurel Eschmann of Lobby Control in a press release.
Musk had clearly set the goal of strengthening the AfD before the federal election. To do this, he uses his powerful online platform X. Lobby Control suspects that Musk will use his influence on the X algorithm to attract more attention to Alice Weidel and the livestream than to other X users. "In this respect, one can certainly speak of political advertising here, because platform X usually sells such a reach for a lot of money," says the association. However, election advertising by third parties would be considered a party donation since 2024, and party donations from non-EU countries would be prohibited. Since Musk and X are based in the USA, there would therefore be a violation.
Interview by Elon Musk with Alice Weidel: Bundestag initiates investigation
In the meantime, the Bundestag administration has actually initiated an investigation into whether the Musk-Weile interview could be an illegal party donation. "A clarification of the facts is currently being carried out," a Bundestag spokesman told the AFP news agency.
Lobby Control is calling for "much tougher action against the politically one-sided social media platform X" in Europe. Because the measure against the live conversation with Weidel is "about saving our democratic public from the influence of a US tech billionaire." (Paula Völkner/Stephanie Munk)
Translated from German
Elon Musk und Alice Weidel live im Interview: Heftige Strafe könnte drohen |
