Musk’s platform suffers legal setback as investigators investigate potential election interference.

Researchers representing two German nonprofits have won a legal battle against the platform formerly known as Twitter, securing crucial access to social media data to investigate potential election interference.

The Berlin Regional Court has ruled that Elon Musk’s X must immediately grant researchers access to data on politically related content ahead of the country’s 23 February election. The decision, issued last week, marks one of the first major judicial tests of the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

The lawsuit, brought by Democracy Reporting International (DRI) and the Society for Civil Rights (GFF), accused X of blocking efforts to track potential election interference by withholding key engagement data — including likes, shares, and visibility metrics — that other platforms have made available to researchers, GDD said in a statement.

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The case raises fresh concerns about X’s compliance with European regulations before Germany’s federal election, following an avalanche of manipulating claims by Musk regarding German politics and his open endorsement for rightwing parties.

Social media platforms, including X, are already under scrutiny from the European Commission for allegedly failing to mitigate risks related to election interference. Last year, Russia was accused of meddling in Romania’s annulled presidential election through a TikTok campaign that amplified a pro-Kremlin candidate.

The case adds to growing tensions between European regulators and Musk’s platform over its rollback of content moderation policies and refusal to comply with data access requirements.

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The DSA, which came into force in 2022, mandates that large platforms provide researchers with access to data to study systemic risks. In July 2023, the European Commission accused X of breaching the DSA by failing to meet these transparency requirements. Meta also faced questioning over its decision to shut down the research tool CrowdTangle, according to Politico.

The Berlin Regional Court ruled issued an urgent injunction that compels X to provide real-time access to the requested data via its online interface until February 25. The ruling also orders X to cover legal costs and imposes a €6,000 procedural fine, setting a precedent for how European courts may enforce transparency obligations under the DSA.

TikTok and Meta have granted access to data in response to a similar request.

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