The European Commission is stepping up an investigation into X owner Elon Musk, requesting sweeping access to the company’s internal data following a livestream Musk participated in with a politician from Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, multiple outlets reported Friday.
The commission is seeking access to internal documentation on X’s content recommendation algorithm and its application programming interface (API) in order to “analyze content moderation and account virality,” according to Euro News.
They also requested information on any algorithmic tweaks the platform has made before Feb. 15. The February deadline, Politico reported, covers a Jan. 9 livestream chat Musk hosted on the platform with AfD’s Alice Weidel, who is running to be Germany’s chancellor in the country’s Feb. 23 election.
The commission closely watched the livestream, publicly warning that a boost from Musk could give the AfD an unfair electoral advantage.
Co-leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and the party’s candidate for chancellor Alice Weidel poses for photos prior to a live discussion with US tech billionaire and businessman Elon Musk on social network X, formerly known as Twitter, in her office at the Jakob Kaiser Building in Berlin on January 9, 2025. (KAY NIETFELD/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Now, the commission is taking unprecedented steps, requesting sweeping access to internal X information. (RELATED: Google Rejects Eurocrats’ Push For More Censorship)
“Today we are taking further steps to shed light on the compliance of X’s recommender systems with the obligations under the [Digital Services Act],” Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice president for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, said Friday, according to Euro News.
The commission’s new request is an acceleration of what was already an open investigation into Musk and X.
A member of the commission initially opened an investigation into Musk in December 2023, formally requesting information from the platform under the European Union’s (EU) Digital Services Act (DSA).
Then-commissioner Thierry Breton claimed that X was being used to “disseminate illegal content & disinformation in the EU.”
Despite the commission’s repeated warnings that Musk’s boosting of AfD could confer an unfair advantage, they assured the public the decision was not politically motivated.
“These steps are completely independent from any political considerations or any specific events recently,” European Commission Spokesman Thomas Regnier told reporters in Brussels on Friday, according to Euro News.
The European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, has been a staunch advocate for censorship.
“For the global business community, the top concern for the next two years is not conflict or climate, it is disinformation and misinformation,” she said in a January 2024 speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Musk has increasingly embraced the AfD, calling the party Germany’s “last spark of hope” in a December op-ed, according to the Associated Press.
Figures from the global left have often castigated AfD as “far-right” and compared them to Nazis, a characterization which Musk has vociferously pushed back on.
“What a huge liar,” Musk tweeted about Demcoratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy after Murphy accused him of supporting a neo-Nazi party.
“The AfD policies are identical to those of the US Democratic Party when Obama took office! I don’t think there is a single difference,” Musk tweeted.
What a huge liar.
The AfD policies are identical to those of the US Democratic Party when Obama took office! I don’t think there is a single difference. https://t.co/b6daIRijPH
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2024
Weidel, the leader of AfD, is a former Goldman Sachs economist and a lesbian who raises children with her partner, a female filmmaker from Sri Lanka.
During Musk’s chat with Weidel he lauded her as a “very reasonable person.”
The tip of the spear for AfD critics seems to be focused on their immigration proposals. The party heavily emphasizes a protection of German borders and a tightening of asylum laws, according to their website.
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
