More than 75 German non-governmental organisations (NGOs), trade unions and church representatives have sent an open letter to the country’s expected future government parties demanding tougher regulation of US social media platforms.
The three-page document was addressed to Friedrich Merz, leader of the Conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Lars Klingbeil from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Markus Söder from the Bavarian Conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party.
In the letter, the signatories complained that platforms including X, Facebook and Instagram “promote extremes, emotions, and divisiveness” and consequently endangered democracy. They claimed “disinformation” impedes “policy-making on the pressing problems of our times such as the climate crisis”.
The letter was signed by a wide variety of German NGOs including Attac, Germanwatch and Greenpeace, plus the German Journalists’ Union and several Evangelical churches.
In a press statement, Christoph Bals, manager of Germanwatch, said: “Digital platforms should no longer be programmed in a way that they influence public debate and divide societies.”
The letter continued: “The concentration of market power and the control of platforms by a few individuals, especially the dependence on tech companies from the from the USA and China, are a risk to Europe’s digital sovereignty, prosperity and democracy.
“Who can participate in the exchange, how and when exchange is in the hands of corporations and their CEOs, whose interests are partly influenced or determined by right-wing extremist or authoritarian forces are determined.
“This is shown by the massive support of [Elon] Musk with his Platform X for [US President Donald] Trump and radical right-wing parties in Europe, as well as [Facebook and Instragram owner] Meta’s rejection of fact checks and hate-speech moderation in anticipatory obedience to Trump,” the letter stated.
In reaction to these perceived threats, the signatories demanded that the incoming German CDU-SPD government coalition implement existing regulation effectively, namely the European Union’s Digital Services Act. This would, they said, require Germany to “adequately fund” the agencies in charge of this regulation.
The NGOs said they would also like to see regulation expanded, especially with regard to “fencing in” tracking-based advertisements and “addictive design”.
Lastly, the signatories called for the incoming German government to foster the emergence of platforms “orientated towards the common good”, which would include ideas such as “platform councils”.
While there has been no official reaction from the political addressees to the open letter, commentators outside the left-wing spectrum have been critical of the document.
Anna Schneider, a libertarian pundit, hinted on X on March 4 that the real danger for democracy were the signatories rather than the platforms they criticised.
On the same day, tech journalist Michael Spehr wrote on the platform: “Not democracy is in danger, but freedom of speech [is].”
