“It's not about his views, but his algorithms.” The European Commission will investigate whether Elon Musk is interfering in the German elections

It's not about his views, but about his algorithms, Brussels emphasizes. The owner of platform X can post any slogans in support of European politicians. However, the question arises whether the platform itself will promote opinions consistent with Musk's views at the expense of opinions with which the richest man in the world does not agree.

And this is what the European Commission wants to check, which announced that it will look at the technical aspects of Elon Musk's conversation with Alice Weidel, president of the Alternative for Germany, scheduled for Thursday. The interview will be broadcast on the X platform, and Brussels will assess whether users of the former Twitter will be able to turn off streaming and whether the corporation has tweaked its algorithms to increase the reach and visibility of the conversation conducted by its boss.

Elon Musk, ahead of next month's German elections, has inserted himself into the campaign by publicly praising the extreme German party, writing that “only AfD can save Germany” and that the current chancellor is an “incompetent fool.”

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The billionaire also spoke in a similar tone about other European politicians, hence French President Emmanuel Macron criticized Musk for interfering in political processes on our continent and supporting the “international reactionaries”.

For now, Brussels is only reminding that it has new instruments under the Digital Services Act, which are intended to discipline the owners of the largest internet portals and protect against undermining democratic processes.

Representatives of the Commission, the German authorities and the X board planned consultations on January 24. A year ago, the European Commission initiated proceedings against the X platform for violating transparency rules and lowering control standards, which facilitated the spread of Russian propaganda online.

For breaking the rules, Musk's company may pay a fine of up to six percent of its global turnover, and as a last resort, the Commission may suspend X's operations in the EU.

However, the problem is broader, because Elon Musk controls not only the social media platform, but also Tesla and SpaceX, among others, and in recent months he has become one of Donald Trump's closest collaborators. A dispute with the richest man on the planet may only accelerate the collision course between Brussels and the new administration in Washington.