Earlier this month, a Berlin court ordered Elon Musk-owned X to provide immediate access to public platform data to two civil society organizations seeking to study systemic risk around the country’s upcoming election. In a post on X, the social media company said Tuesday it is challenging the order, claiming the summary proceeding “egregiously undermines our fundamental right to due process and threatens the privacy rights and free speech of our users.”
The data access challenge hinges on the European Union’s Digital Services Act, an online rulebook which requires larger platforms — such as X — to support public interest research into systemic risks. In this case, two civil society groups — Democracy Reporting International and the German Society for Civil Rights (GFF) — aim to study social media’s influence on upcoming federal elections, including investigating “potential manipulations” on X.
However X’s challenge to the Berlin court’s order of 7 February could delay or derail efforts to study public chatter on the platform ahead of the election — which takes place shortly, on February 23.
