So much for freedom of expression: Musk’s algorithm favours far-right and pro-Putin German parties on X/Twitter
Dear friends and followers,
Why am I actually being shown this? This is a question that everyone who is active on social media asks themselves. Now, a new study by researchers from Germany, Ireland and the USA, using X/Twitter as an example, shows how strongly the algorithm favours the content of some German parties ahead of tomorrow’s general election and devalues others.
To do this, the researchers analysed how often content from the various German parties appeared in the ‘For you’ feed, the section created by the platform’s recommendation algorithm. If X really is about freedom of expression, as Musk always claims, there should be no differences between the parties.
But the opposite is the case: While tweets from the SPD and the Greens make it into the ‘For you’ feed 6-12 times less often, content from the BSW, CSU, AfD and FDP, but also from the Left Party and the CDU, is displayed to users 1.4 to 4 times more often. That doesn’t sound like much, but the authors explain that extrapolated to thousands of pieces of content, it has a major effect. Here is a graphic from the study that illustrates this well:
If you look more closely at the study, you can also see that far-right AfD posts appear most frequently in the ‘For You’ feed. They account for 37.9% of the posts in the feed, although AfD politicians only posted 15.2% of all tweets from politicians during this period. Similarly, posts from the BSW made up 10.6% of tweets in the For You feed, although their politicians only made up 1.4% of politician tweets.
These results show that X disproportionately highlights the extremes of the German political spectrum and promotes two parties: BSW and AfD.
The four most mentioned users are: (1) Elon Musk, who supports the AfD, (2) Alex Jones, an American far-right radio host, and (3-4) Dennis Hohloch and Stephan Brandner of the AfD. Of the posts by the 100 most mentioned users, 47% are from users who are either AfD members or supporters of the AfD, far-right ideology or conspiracy theories.
- Why are these parties, which at first glance appear to be so different, being specifically promoted?
It is striking that the BSW, the Left Party and the AfD want to limit aid to Ukraine. The CSU and FDP are both loudly ruling out a coalition with the Greens, who called for support for the country even before Russia invaded the rest of Ukraine in 2021 and have since stood behind Ukraine like no other party. The FDP has caused the coalition to collapse over the Ukraine aid, and the CSU has close ties to the Putin-friendly Alt Right in Hungary and the USA (exciting Correctiv research on this can be found here).
So if these parties were to become strong, aid to Ukraine would be in jeopardy. If we look at how Trump is currently throwing Ukraine to the Russian bear, even questioning the US NATO membership should the EU continue to regulate the digital platforms of Musk and Zuckerberg, none of this is surprising.
- What can be done politically here to restore a level playing field and genuine freedom of expression?
First, more data is needed. The new study confirms the results of other research groups and on other platforms, but the study size is still small. At the same time, researchers in the US are being put under pressure on this topic because they are a thorn in the side of the Trump administration.
That is why a permanent and intensive investigation of social media algorithms by the EU Commission is now finally needed on a really large scale. The EU Digital Services Act gives the EU Commission precisely these rights, but the new EU Commissioner Virkkunen is refusing to finally take action here.
We will continue to put pressure on her. But until that is successful, I am calling for the recommendation algorithms, in this case the ‘For you’ feed, to be switched off at least before the elections. This is the only way to ensure that all content is distributed fairly. That would then be real freedom of expression, and not the perverted freedom of expression of Trump, Musk and Zuckerberg, who only mean the freedom of their own opinion.
Please share this email with your contacts. It is important that people understand that there is no freedom of expression in social media as long as algorithms and their billionaire tech bosses deliberately favour certain political content.
With best regards,
Alexandra Geese