The German defense ministry and the Bundeswehr national army will suspend their accounts on Elon Musk’s social media platform X. They cite an inability to have factual debate on the site. In December, Musk endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in a post on X.
Since then, he has used the platform to berate mainstream German politicians. He called center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz a “fool” and touted the AfD as the only force that can “save” the country. The decision to exit the platform by the defense ministry comes just days after Musk held a live chat on X with Alice Weidel, the AfD’s candidate for chancellor in Germany’s upcoming snap election on Feb.
23. Musk is a top adviser to United States President-elect Donald Trump.
German defense ministry exits X
“The main reason for the decision is that, according to the defense ministry’s assessment, the objective exchange of arguments is becoming increasingly difficult,” the ministry said in a statement. The defense ministry’s move will spark debate within the German government over whether all institutions should cease posting on X. “It’s a difficult balance to strike,” a spokesperson for the chancellery told reporters in Berlin.
“The defense ministry has taken its position, but we are sticking to the platform for the time being, which is certainly not without controversy.”
A number of other celebrities and institutions have already ditched X, but Scholz posted on the site on Tuesday. The leader of the fiscally conservative Free Democrats, ex-Finance Minister Christian Lindner, has also expressed his support for Musk on X. More than 60 German universities and research institutions announced they were leaving the platform last week due to increasing radicalization of the discourse on the site.
That decision came in the immediate wake of Musk’s livestreamed chat with AfD co-leader Weidel. In the chat, Weidel said: “We have this insane, woke-ish, socialist, leftist agenda in our educational system. So, the young people, they don’t learn anything in school or university… They just learn about gender studies.”
Musk replied: “It sounds like the woke mind virus has infected Germany quite badly.”
Rather than move to Bluesky, a favored alternative to Musk’s X for many, the defense ministry said it will continue to stream videos and content on Instagram, YouTube, and through a WhatsApp channel instead.
April Isaacs is a news contributor for DevX.com She is long-term, self-proclaimed nerd. She loves all things tech and computers and still has her first Dreamcast system. It is lovingly named Joni, after Joni Mitchell.
