X Prevents Research on Potential Election Interference
The social media platform X denied researchers access to public data on its platform. Together with Democracy Reporting International (DRI), we filed a lawsuit in summary proceedings. The lawsuit will be heard orally on May 13 at 10 a.m. at the Berlin Regional Court.
In summary proceedings, the Berlin Regional Court initially ordered X to grant DRI unrestricted access to all publicly available data from X until shortly after the general election in order to investigate whether the platform was influencing elections. The regional court reasoned that waiting any longer would thwart the research project, as the time immediately before the general election was crucial. After GFF and DRI applied to the court for a penalty payment, X lodged an objection. In addition, X filed motions for recusal against several judges at the regional court. The court granted one of these motions. On May 13, the Berlin Regional Court will hold an oral hearing on the question of costs for the proceedings.
Declaration of there no longer being a need for adjudication
Publicly available data can change at any time, for example by being deleted by users or the platform. It was therefore important to obtain access to the data before the general election and not afterwards. The motion was therefore time-limited until shortly after the election. After the election was over, the motion also became obsolete due to the passage of time and the GFF and DRI had to declare to be no longer in need of adjudication ("Erledigterklärung"). Hence the only issue now is the costs. However, the court must also take into account the extent to which our application for data access would have been successful if it had been decided in time. We therefore continue to hope that the court will make findings on Art. 40 para. 12 DSA.
Enforcing the Digital Services Act
The core of the lawsuit is to enforce a new legal provision of the DSA: the right to access research data (Article 40(12) DSA). This provision requires large online platforms to grant researchers immediate access to publicly available data on their platforms to investigate systemic risks. At the same time, the lawsuit seeks to clarify whether such cases for research data access can be brought to German courts.
DRI conducts research on political discourse on social media platforms in the run-up to elections in Europe, including the Bundestag election 2025. “Other platforms have granted us access to systematically track public debates on their platforms, but the company X has refused. We see it as our right under the Digital Services Act to access data and strengthen the public good by showing how political campaigns evolve on social media platforms,” says Michael Meyer-Resende, Executive Director of DRI.
Social Media influences public opinion
This lawsuit is part of the Center for User Rights, funded by the Mercator Foundation, Luminate, and the Open Society Foundation. Through this initiative, the GFF aims to sustainably strengthen, assert, and enforce users' rights while addressing the existing power imbalance between online platforms and their users. Beyond this specific case, the goal is to increase pressure on platforms. Social networks have a significant influence on public opinion and, consequently, on electoral processes. In Germany, there are already indications that manipulation campaigns have been launched. Access to relevant metrics from major platforms is a crucial tool to prevent elections from being influenced and disinformation from spreading.
