included<\/a> in an ongoing probe launched by the European Commission into the platform on whether the discussion violates the EU\u2019s Digital Services Act.<\/p>\nCould Musk make a financial donation to the AfD?<\/p>\n
Musk funnelled millions into US President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s campaign through his super Political Action Committee (PAC). However, German law would prevent Musk from making a substantial financial donation to the AfD, as donations to German parties from outside the EU are limited to a maximum of 1,000, a spokesperson from the Interior Ministry confirmed to Euronews.<\/p>\n
On top of this, parties in Germany must report single donations exceeding \u20ac50,000 to the president of the German Bundestag. High campaign donations such as those in the US are unusual in Germany: the AfD has not received a single official donation of over \u20ac35,000 in its history.<\/p>\n
Related<\/b><\/p>\n
However, if Musk was motivated to financially donate to the AfD, he could find a loophole by donating to an association or a \u201cVerein,\u201d which is allowed to collect donations over time and give them to political parties directly or through advertising, Eschmann said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are more opaque \u2018Verein\u2019 constructions he could use, Tesla Germany might be an option. You would have to take a closer look to see if that wouldn\u2019t be possible. It just shows the German system is not prepared or set up for this kind of influence,\u201d Eschmann explained.<\/p>\n
The AfD has also been previously accused, alongside other political parties, of raising funds through shadowy means.<\/p>\n
This included allegedly benefiting from an illegal \u20ac6 million advertising campaign between 2016 and 2018 via a shell company in Switzerland, which paid for \u201cseveral thousand posters,\u201d among other advertisements for the party.<\/p>\n
Could he influence voters?<\/p>\n
Musk has 211.4 million followers on X and the ability to reach people across the world with his opinions. Experts imagine that he could have some impact online by tapping into voters who are dissatisfied with the current German government; however, it\u2019s currently too early to tell.<\/p>\n
\u201dMusk could have some impact because there is a general kind of dissatisfaction in Germany with the lack of digitalisation, bureaucracy, the economic crisis,\u201d Philipp David Darius, a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Digital Governance, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI imagine he could have some impact on legitimising the AfD\u2019s opinions to those who are more liberal leaning. Perhaps some people would see him as having this entrepreneurial charisma.\u201d<\/p>\n
More critical in shifting public opinion in Germany, Darius said, is Musk\u2019s influence on tech entrepreneurs such as Mark Zuckerberg, who recently announced he was rolling back on fact-checkers on his Meta platforms in favour of a community notes style system practised on X.<\/p>\n
A 2023 study by public broadcaster ARD showed that only 8% of Germans use X daily, with most Germans favouring Instagram (35%) and Facebook (33%), both owned by Meta.<\/p>\n
\u201cLess content moderation on X and other platforms could have implications for what content is visible to voters. Additionally, the amplification of misinformation and negative content about rival parties such as the Greens could have repercussions for their voter support, even if it doesn\u2019t gain the AfD more votes,\u201d Darius said.<\/p>\n
Related<\/b><\/p>\n
Recent polling doesn\u2019t indicate that Musk has won the AfD a vast influx of new votes, at least not yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to draw causal connections between people reading something online and changing their opinion,\u201d Matthias Kettemann from the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the AfD\u2019s results in the last election, I don\u2019t think voters of the AfD would need Musk to certify the validity of their opinions, although it certainly doesn\u2019t hurt them that he approves of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
More wide-reaching in Germany itself, Kettemann explained, was the decision by Welt to publish an op-ed with Musk and the subsequent fall-out. \u201cI think that the actions of Elon Musk contribute to a polarisation of the political discourse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that Musk is trying to influence the political process is already influencing it simply through this feeling that we might not be able to trust how X regulates content around the election,\u201d he told Euronews.<\/p>\n
Musk often justifies his comments online as an act of free speech. Kettemann pointed out that there are differences in the US and European contexts regarding what is allowed under the right to freedom of speech, which is called freedom of expression in European law.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are limits to that freedom of speech, especially the European context. If you look at the European Convention on Human Rights there is the freedom of expression but that freedom of expression can be limited through laws that relate to securing a different societal value such as the rights of others or public health or democracy,\u201d Kettemann explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery individual has the right to free speech, but that also comes with responsibilities. Especially when you are a powerful actor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South African-born tech billionaire Elon Musk caused a stir in the German political establishment shortly before Christmas when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[8385,32410,192953,295,2000,299,1824,192954],"class_list":{"0":"post-619752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-afd","9":"tag-alice-weidel","10":"tag-election-campaign","11":"tag-elon-musk","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-germany","15":"tag-illegal-party"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115683246963576484","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}