X Prevents Research on Potential Election Interference

The social media platform X denies researchers access to public data on its platform. Together with Democracy Reporting International (DRI), we are taking legal action.

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Together with Democracy Reporting International (DRI), the GFF has filed an urgent lawsuit against X at the Berlin Regional Court. The platform refuses to provide DRI with publicly accessible data, such as the reach or the number of likes and shares of posts. DRI aims to use this data to study the influence of social media platforms on the upcoming Bundestag election and to increase transparency regarding potential manipulations before the vote. The lawsuit is based on the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires platforms to grant researchers access to relevant data.

Simone Ruf

Lawyer and deputy director of GFF’s Center for User Rights

Platforms are increasingly being weaponized against democratic elections. We must defend ourselves by making manipulation mechanisms transparent and compelling platforms to take action against them.

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 can be brought to German courts or whether researchers need to go to Ireland.

DRI conducts research on political discourse on social media platforms in the run-up to elections in Europe, including the upcoming Bundestag election. “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.

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.