How Elon Musk uses X to meddle in world politics

Riots in the United Kingdom. Venezuela's presidential election. Germany's handling of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. 

These are just three recent examples for where billionaire Elon Musk has waded into the political debates of other countries far from his home in Texas. 

As the US prepares to elect a new president in November, Musk isn't just using his social media platform X to support Donald Trump's candidacy. The world's richest man also frequently tweets to his more than 193 million followers about political issues in other countries, often displaying what appears to be a limited understanding of the situations on the ground.

"Elon Musk brings anything but an informative, informed position to the debates here in Europe — which isn't surprising since he lives in the US and communicates primarily to a US audience," said Jan Philipp Albrecht, president of Germany's Heinrich Böll Foundation. 

While Musk's interventions address a wide range of issues, they tend to follow a similar pattern. Often, the billionaire denounces what he perceives as left-wing ideals and tendencies that, he believes, contribute to the degradation of society.

"Musk moves in a very specific bubble of ultra-libertarian and right-wing populist, reactionary voices," said Albrecht, a member of Germany's Green Party, which is part of the country's governing coalition, and a former state minister. "He gets most of his information from these circles and often ends up spreading conspiracy myths and disinformation."

"Considering his reach and especially the reach of his platform, this is very alarming," Albrecht told DW. 

Musk's growing fortune and political influence

Since founding his first company in the mid-1990s, South African-born entrepreneur Musk has built a string of successful businesses, amassing an estimated fortune of more than $209 billion. Over the past decade, his involvement in ventures such as the aerospace company SpaceX and its satellite subsidiary Starlink has also helped him gain growing political influence.

Nowhere, however, is Musk's ambition to insert himself into politics more visible than on X. In 2022, he bought the platform, then known as Twitter. Since then, an entire ecosystem of right-wing content creators has established itself on the platform. At the same time, X has become increasingly popular with right-leaning users, according to a 2024 study by the Pew Research Center.

Musk himself publishes and shares several posts a day, ranging from memes to company announcements to frequent commentary on political issues.

Long considered ideologically non-identifiable, "Musk has openly supported more right-wing views and right-wing politicians since he acquired the platform," according to Matthew Facciani, a social scientist at the University of Notre Dame in the US.

Facciani, who studies social networks and political polarization, said Musk's online activity suggests the billionaire "consumes a substantial amount of right-wing content on his platform."

"Many people can fall into information echo chambers on social media, and Elon Musk appears to be no different, except for his massive wealth and influence," Facciani told DW.  

Mocking world leaders

The billionaire's urge to weigh in on political debates does not stop at national borders. 

In early August, he clashed with the British government when he suggested on X that "civil war is inevitable" in the UK, following attacks on mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers across the country.

After a British government spokesman rebuked his comments, saying there was "no justification" for Musk's remarks, Musk doubled down on his attacks, branding British Prime Minister Keir Starmer "two-tier Keir": an apparent reference to a narrative circulating in right-wing circles that British police treated white far-right rioters more harshly than minorities. 

Before commenting on the situation in the UK, Musk had gotten into a heated argument with Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro following the widely disputed reelection of the Socialist politician. Their exchange led to Musk calling Maduro a "dictator" and saying he would personally carry him "on a donkey" to the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay. 

A few days later, Maduro signed a decree to temporarily block access to X in the country.

Sympathies for Germany's far-right

In Germany, Musk has repeatedly made headlines by expressing sympathy for the far-right AfD party, parts of which Germany's domestic intelligence service classifies as "far-right extremist." 

In the fall of 2023, the multi-billionaire shared a post that criticized the German government's handling of irregular immigration and expressed support for the AfD. This June, he replied to a post by an influencer popular in right-wing circles, who said she had voted for the AfD, by tweeting, "They keep saying 'far right', but the policies of AfD that I've read about don't sound extremist."

Backlash brewing, penalties on the horizon

Greens politician Albrecht, one of the most vocal critics of Musk's meddling in German politics, said Musk is free to express his opinions within the confines of existing laws.

But the problem, according to Albrecht, is that he is using X — his own platform, which he bought and now controls — to do so. This, he said, calls into question the neutrality of the platform, as well as a neutrality privilege that Twitter, like other social media platforms, enjoys in the EU.

When social media platforms first emerged in the 2000s, European lawmakers decided to treat them generally as neutral intermediaries that people use to communicate, similar to telecom providers. It is time to re-evaluate that stance, Albrecht said, now that a new EU-wide social media law, the Digital Services Act (DSA), has come into force. 

The European Commission has already opened an investigation into X under the DSA over toxic content on the platform. If the EU finds that X is not complying with its rules to fight illegal content and disinformation, or its transparency requirements, the company could face hefty fines of up to 6 percent of its global revenue.

"The European Commission has to enforce the law with the utmost rigor against an actor like Elon Musk," Albrecht, a former member of the European Parliament, told DW. "It's not that this platform should disappear, and it's not that Elon Musk shouldn't be allowed to express his opinion — but he has to follow the rules like everyone else. And anyone who doesn't play by the rules needs to be punished."

Edited by Kyra Levine