Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) was one of the first: In December he deleted his Twitter account to protest the takeover of the platform by US billionaire Elon Musk. Musk, Weil said, avoids any controls and encourages the spread of hate speech under the guise of free speech. “I don’t have to be there,” he wrote in his last tweet. He also had his state chancellery’s profile deactivated.
Politicians like the SPD federal chairwoman Saskia Esken argued in a similar way. “In the hands of Elon Musk, Twitter will perish as a platform for debate,” she toned. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) also announced that he would soon deactivate his account
In fact, the new Twitter strategy has been questionable since Musk took power with its current 254 million users. For one thing, almost every second employee has been fired – particularly on the moderation team, which is responsible for misinformation, hate speech and harassment. The Baden-Württemberg anti-Semitism commissioner Michael Blume felt this, for example. He sued against 46 defamatory tweets – and was right by the Frankfurt Regional Court: Twitter urgently needs to improve the systemic deficits in content moderation.
More complaints
In addition, complaints about data protection are increasing. A hacker is said to have recently offered the personal information of 400 million Twitter users for sale. The Federal Foreign Office is also observing the developments with “growing concern” – in particular because of the blocking of journalists. “Freedom of the press must not be switched on and off at will,” says Annalena Baerbock (Greens).
The top political personnel in the Free State wants to stay on Twitter despite the criticism. CSU Prime Minister Markus Söder should find it much more difficult to deactivate his account with over 400,000 followers than his colleague Weil in Lower Saxony, who only had 15,000. Vice Prime Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) with his 30,000 fans also wants to continue communicating on the platform. His ministry also rules out deregistration because the platform is “a central channel for external communication”.
Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich, Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter and Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber (all CSU) don’t have to worry – they don’t have a Twitter profile.
Watch short message service closely
At the request of the state newspaper, the other members of the government in Bavaria assure that they are closely monitoring the development of the short message service under Musk. “Twitter must stick to its commitment to combat disinformation,” emphasizes Digital Minister Judith Gerlach (CSU). Otherwise, further steps cannot be ruled out. However, she leaves it open where exactly the red lines lie for her.
The press office of the Ministry of Education has announced that the account will be deleted in the event that the rules regarding freedom of expression and freedom of the press change significantly.
The state parliament follows two tracks: with Twitter and Mastodon
The Ministry of the Interior does not want to do without Twitter: “Deleting our account would mean that we would no longer be able to counterbalance possible fake accounts.”
The members of the state parliament also want to remain loyal to the platform. “Currently, the CSU parliamentary group is not considering unsubscribing from Twitter,” says a spokesman. The Greens criticize the lack of transparency, but state that the platform has a “not inconsiderable importance in obtaining political opinions”. The SPD and FDP also continue to regard Twitter as a “helpful tool” for conveying political decisions to people “who cannot be reached by the established media”.
State President Ilse Aigner (CSU), on the other hand, criticizes Musk’s “arbitrary approach”. The state parliament is in the process of creating an additional profile on Mastodon. The donation-financed network from Germany with nine million users hardly differs from its big brother and is considered a serious Twitter alternative.
Praise for the platform’s new course comes from the AfD. Since there is now less censorship, freedom of expression will be strengthened, says the parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, Alice Weidel. Background: Musk personally tweeted that the US government has paid Twitter millions of dollars in the past to censor posts critical of the corona virus. In fact, more than 100,000 posts were deleted and over 11,000 accounts blocked in this context – including those from the press, scientists and doctors who objectively criticized the pandemic measures.
In these cases, nobody was upset that Twitter decided quite arbitrarily about who could and couldn’t use the service.
(David Lohmann)
