The Musk threat to European democracy

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European democracies are confronting a new online influence and disinformation threat — not from autocracies such as Russia, but emanating from the US. Elon Musk, the X owner and Donald Trump ally, is using his network to denigrate leaders he dislikes and promote far-right views and politicians. Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg is meanwhile shifting to a Musk-style approach that prioritises “free speech” over independent fact-checking on his Facebook and Instagram platforms. European leaders may fear that if they clash with these US billionaires in trying to safeguard their democracies, they could now face retribution from the White House itself.

The power conferred by Musk’s immense wealth and social media reach has been amplified by his closeness to the US president-elect. The X boss seems intent on political rabble-rousing abroad. He has backed the far-right AfD party ahead of German elections and will on Thursday host a livestream with its chancellor candidate Alice Weidel. He has baselessly accused UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer of being “complicit in mass rapes” — referring to a decade-old scandal over child rape gangs — viciously smeared a female minister, and called to release a jailed hard-right activist. He asked his 211mn X followers whether the US should liberate the UK from its “tyrannical government”.

Meta’s Zuckerberg is not, so far, using his platforms to promote his own or extremist views. But replacing independent fact-checking with X’s model of “community notes” — relying on users to flag misinformation — even just in the US raises questions about whether content will be properly policed elsewhere. It also appears a craven attempt to curry favour with Trump after past frictions. As well as aligning explicitly with Musk’s — and Trump’s — idea of “free expression”, the Meta boss said he would work with the incoming president to oppose “institutionalised censorship” of online platforms in Europe. That sets up a clash between a laissez-faire approach by US social networks and EU and UK requirements to regulate content.

In responding to Musk, in particular, democratic leaders in Europe and elsewhere should avoid a panicked overreaction that plays into his hands. Starmer hit the right note this week by declaring, without naming the X owner, that a “line has been crossed” by those spreading lies and misinformation online. Musk has succeeded, however, in setting the UK political agenda by thrusting a historical scandal, however shocking and iniquitous, artificially back into the spotlight.

Some forbearance may also be warranted by the uncertainty over how durable the Musk-Trump friendship will prove; splits are showing in the pro-Trump coalition. A falling-out would somewhat lessen Musk’s clout — and the risks for politicians elsewhere trying to contain him.

European leaders should make clear, nonetheless, that there are rules that Musk’s, and Zuckerberg’s, networks are required to play by. The EU’s Digital Services Act and the UK’s Online Safety Act both threaten hefty fines for big online platforms that fail to curb illicit content, including forms of disinformation. An EU probe last summer issued preliminary findings that Musk’s X breached the DSA in areas including allegedly deceptive techniques to manipulate user behaviour, advertising transparency, and data access for researchers.

The EU and UK rules are far from perfect. Both jurisdictions need to take care that tech regulation does not, as Zuckerberg charged this week, stifle innovation. But accusations of leftwing bias in European content moderation serve as a smokescreen for the political and personal agendas of Trump, Musk and Zuckerberg. Europe’s democratic values are so fundamental that its leaders should not shy from enforcing rules designed to protect them — even if that risks clashing with the X or Meta bosses, or the returning US president.