Germany Rules Out Invoking EU Crisis Internet Controls During Election

Election campaign billboards of Alternative for Germany (AfD) party leader Alice Weidel (R) and Robert Habeck, Economy and Climate Action Minister and Greens Party chancellor candidate, in Berlin on Jan. 26, 2025. Maja Hitij/Getty Images

Germany has ruled out using a “crisis” internet control protocol under an EU-wide law regarding digital services during its elections.

German authorities have said they won’t trigger Article 36 under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which would impose far-reaching restrictions on the internet, a week after collaborating with the EU Commission on a “stress test” for election disinformation in platform moderation.

The DSA is an EU-wide regulation that sets rules for digital services. The DSA fully came into force across all platforms in 2024.

For the protocol to be triggered in Germany, the country’s DSA enforcement body, Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA), must alert the European Board of Digital Services of a crisis.

A spokeswoman for BNetzA told The Epoch Times by email that an “incident protocol has not yet been triggered in Germany.”

DSA

Article 36 provides the European Commission with the power to impose specific, binding crisis measures during “extraordinary circumstances“ on very large online platforms and search engines.

On Jan. 31, German authorities carried out a “stress test” of online platforms’ ability to handle disinformation together with the European Commission ahead of the German federal elections on Feb. 23.

Germany said that the aim of the stress test was to identify and minimize potential risks in connection with the national elections and to “eliminate infringements swiftly and effectively.”

The test was held behind closed doors, and several fictitious scenarios were simulated to test the online platforms’ preparations.

Klaus Müller, president of the Bundesnetzagentur and acting head of the DSC, said that Germany “realistically simulated possible infringements, tested the platforms’ reporting procedures and mechanisms and practiced action and the relevant exchange of information.”

“As Digital Services Coordinator we are well prepared, with tasks assigned to the national authorities and communication paths to all relevant players in place,” he said.

Prior to the test on Jan. 24, senior European Commission official Thomas Regnier said that the test was the first held for a national election, after one was held before the European Parliament elections last year.

“The stress test is really going through potential scenarios where DSA comes into play and to check with platforms how they would react to these specific scenarios,” he said.

“This was very successful ... so there is a will that this is done together with the German authorities.”

Elon Musk

The test happened after Elon Musk hosted Alice Weidel, leader of Germany’s right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, in a live interview on his social media platform, X, on Jan. 9.

The interview sparked calls from European Union leaders for the European Commission to intervene.

In December 2024, Musk publicly endorsed the AfD, and on Dec. 28, the German paper Welt am Sonntag published a guest editorial by him headlined “Only the AfD Can Save Germany.”

In it, Musk criticized Germany’s energy policies as “geopolitically naive,” including the decision to phase out nuclear power while heavily relying on coal, imported gas, and intermittent renewable energy sources without adequate grid-scale batteries.

“Germany’s economy, once the powerhouse of Europe, is now mired in bureaucracy and stifling regulations,” Musk wrote.

He also claimed that Berlin’s mass immigration policies had caused significant cultural and social tensions.

When German Digital Minister Volker Wissing was asked about Musk on Jan. 22 in an interview with rbb24 Inforadio, he said that “freedom of expression is a great good in our democracy for us.”

He added that it “is also clear that it is important to make it clear to the citizens that, of course, there are also interests behind them and that such statements must be weighted.”

“Mr. Musk certainly pursues his own economic interests, which must not be identical with the interests of our country,” he said.

Reuters contributed to this report.