Federal Network Agency accuses X of acting unlawfully

Elon Musk is not only criticized for his management style at X. The former Twitter has now also become a real pool for fake news and other content that threatens democracy. This has now prompted the Federal Network Agency to make a harsh statement accusing the social network of unlawful behavior.

Legal consequences for X are on the cards

What the dazzling tech billionaire Elon Musk considers to be freedom of expression on his platform X is quite simply anarchy in the eyes of many. The German Federal Network Agency even considers this unbridled freedom of expression to be legally questionable behavior. In a statement, the agency has now taken a clear stance against the network and its lack of rules. Klaus Müller, head of the Federal Network Agency, explained in an interview with Der Spiegel that his agency believes “that X is behaving unlawfully”. In particular, the negligent approach to offensive statements, threats and fake news is a thorn in the side of the agency.

Especially in the super election year 2024, the whole thing naturally harbors huge dangers. For example, Müller also speaks of a major disinformation campaign of Russian origin that has been doing the rounds on X. It is now an open secret that social media is increasingly being used as a vehicle to achieve political goals. This incident may have tipped the scales on the part of the Federal Network Agency. After all, they now want to gather enough information to hold X accountable before a European court.

Federal Network Agency prepares proceedings

In his interview, Klaus Müller by no means sounds like a person who wants to steamroll every social network. On the contrary, the agency seems to be certain that X is acting unlawfully. He explains that they can only intervene “if platforms are clearly not combating illegal content”. Müller emphasizes once again that the increase in negative content such as fake news and hate speech clearly goes hand in hand with Musk’s Twitter takeover. This is not surprising. After all, the major wave of redundancies at Twitter primarily involved the department responsible for combating such content.

In the opinion of the head of the authority, a corresponding ruling by a European court should finally ensure far-reaching regulations. In particular, “functioning complaints procedures” must be imposed on platforms that can be used by users in such cases. Müller emphasizes once again that he is by no means afraid of censorship and gives a personal example. If someone posts “Klaus Müller is stupid”, this is not a problem from his point of view, but simply an expression of opinion. But the fun stops with illegal content.