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Musk Ups Fortunes of Europe Hard-Right 08/01 06:13
ROME (AP) -- Hard-right commentators, politicians and activists in Europe
have uncovered a secret to expanding their influence: engaging with Elon Musk.
Take the German politician from a party whose own domestic intelligence
agency has designated as extremist. Her daily audience on X surged from 230,000
to 2.2 million on days Musk interacted with her posts. She went on to lead her
party to its best-ever electoral showing.
Or the anti-immigration activist in Britain, who was banned from Twitter and
sentenced to 18 months in prison for contempt of court. Since Musk let him back
on the platform in late 2023, he's mentioned, reposted or replied to the
billionaire more than 120 times on X -- and gained nearly a million followers.
Even a little-known social-media influencer turned politician from Cyprus
has benefited from the Musk effect. Before winning a surprise seat in the
European Parliament, where he's advocated for Musk, the influencer seemed to
have one ambition: to hug the world's richest man. He got his hug -- and
political endorsements. On days Musk has interacted with his account on X, the
man's audience exploded from just over 300,000 to nearly 10 million views.
Elon Musk may have tumbled from political grace in Washington -- he stepped
down as an adviser to President Donald Trump in May and has since traded
insults with the president -- but as he works to build his own political party,
his power on X his power remains unchecked.
Musk's influence on the platform he bought for $44 billion has made him a
kingmaker at home and abroad. Among those he has chosen to cultivate are
hard-right politicians and insurgent influencers across Europe, according to an
Associated Press analysis of public data. His dominance, which has real-world
financial and political impacts, is fueling concerns in Europe about foreign
meddling -- not from Russia or China this time, but from the United States.
"Every alarm bell needs to ring," said Christel Schaldemose, a vice
president of the European Parliament who works on electoral interference and
digital regulation. "We need to make sure that power is not unbalanced."
In seeking to quantify Musk's effect on European politics, The Associated
Press analyzed more than 20,000 posts over a three-year period from 11
far-right European figures across six countries who frequently promote a
hard-right political or social agenda and had significant interactions with
Elon Musk since he purchased Twitter. Tens of thousands of posts by Musk on
Twitter, now known as X, were also collected.
The AP used the records, obtained from data provider Bright Data, to analyze
how Musk's account interacted with the European influencers, and vice versa,
and the extent to which Musk's engagement boosted their reach.
These case studies are not meant to be representative of a broad universe;
rather, they showcase the ways in which Musk's engagement can have an impact on
local influencers who share his views.
Due to limitations on data collection, the dataset is not a complete record
of all posts made by these accounts. Even so, it captured at least 920
instances in which one of the European accounts tagged, replied or otherwise
attempted to interact with Musk's account, and at nearly 190 instances where
Musk's own posts interacted with the Europeans.
The AP also analyzed records of daily follower counts, using data from
Social Blade, to measure any growth in the European accounts' audience that
occurred in the wake of Musk's online interactions. This kind of analysis is no
longer possible. In March, Social Blade removed X from its analytics, saying
that X had increased its data access fees to prohibitive levels, making the
platform harder to research.
Among those included in AP's analysis are several people who have run into
legal trouble in their own countries. An anti-immigrant agitator in the U.K.,
for example, was sentenced in October to 18 months in prison for violating a
court order blocking him from making libelous allegations against a Syrian
refugee. A German politician was convicted last year of knowingly using a Nazi
slogan in a speech. An Italian vice premier was acquitted in December of
illegally detaining 100 migrants aboard a humanitarian rescue ship.
Others examined by AP were an influencer known as the "shieldmaiden of the
far-right;" a German activist dubbed the "anti-Greta Thunberg" now living in
what amounts to political exile in Washington, D.C.; and two politicians who
have advocated for the interests of Musk's companies as those firms seek to
expand in Europe.
AP's analysis shows how Musk is helping unite nationalists across borders in
common cause to halt migration, overturn progressive policies and promote an
absolutist vision of free speech. While his efforts have sparked backlash in
some countries, Musk's promotion of a growing alliance of hard-right parties
and individuals has helped rattle the foundation of a transatlantic bond that
has guided U.S. and European relations for over eight decades.
Engagement from Musk does not guarantee a surge in followers or page views.
But AP found it can have a huge impact, especially on up-and-coming
influencers. One account that began with around 120,000 followers when Musk
took over Twitter in October 2022 topped 1.2 million by January of this year.
Seven other European accounts saw six-figure increases in their follower counts
over the same period.
Most of the 11 accounts examined saw triple-digit percentage increases in
their followers. Even some that grew more steadily on their own before Musk
interacted with them saw their follower counts rise sharply after he began
engaging with their posts. Similarly, on days Musk interacted with a post, its
account saw its views soar -- in most cases, accruing two to four times as many
views, with a few seeing boosts 30 or 40 times their normal daily viewership.
Musk is not the only factor influencing the growth of these accounts, of
course, but their rising fortunes are a measure of how the platform has evolved
under his leadership. When Musk acquired X, he pledged to turn it into a haven
for free speech, declaring himself a "free speech absolutist." AP's analysis
adds to growing evidence that instead of serving as a neutral forum for free
speech, X amplifies Musk's speech.
This shift has given him sweeping power to direct people's attention.
"There's an extreme asymmetry in the way Musk is able to leverage and shape
the platform," said Timothy Graham, an associate professor in digital media at
the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, who has studied
data anomalies on X. "There's an unequivocal sense when you go onto the site
that you're entering Musk's kingdom."
Musk's megaphone: Bigger than Trump and Taylor Swift
Since he acquired Twitter in 2022, Musk has come to dominate the platform.
His followers have more than doubled, to more than 220 million -- growth so
tremendous that it easily outpaced the other Top 10 accounts. Not even Taylor
Swift has been able to keep up.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose followers grew by 21 million --
or 25% -- from October 2022 through January, clocked a distant second. Donald
Trump's followers grew by 14%, or around 12 million, while Taylor Swift
mustered a mere 3% growth, or 3 million new followers.
None of the other Top 10 accounts have shown such consistent follower
growth, month after month, AP found. The result is a further concentration of
power for the world's richest man, who now commands the most popular account on
a social media platform used by hundreds of millions of people around the world.
Given the opacity of the algorithms that power X, it's hard to determine
with certainty what array of factors might be driving such unusual -- and
unusually consistent -- growth in Musk's account. But researchers who have
analyzed data patterns on X argue that the platform's algorithm has, at times,
been altered to amplify Musk's voice.
How X promotes content is a growing point of contention in Europe. In
January, the European Union expanded its investigation of X to assess how the
platform pushes content to users and why some material goes viral. In February,
French prosecutors opened a separate investigation into X over allegations that
Musk changed the platform's algorithms to promote biased content.
Musk's public attacks on left-leaning politicians, support for hard-right
policies and loose handling of facts have prompted rebukes from British Prime
Minister Keir Starmer, former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President
Emmanuel Macron, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Italian President Sergio
Mattarella, and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.
X did not respond to requests for comment.
Musk is X's kingmaker
Musk's dominance creates a strong incentive for people seeking to increase
their clout -- or their revenues, through the platform's monetization options
-- to exploit these network effects and try to get Musk to engage with their
content.
"People know that he's gearing everything towards him," said Graham, the
digital media scholar in Australia. "They're doing everything they can to get
close to this person because he is the moneymaker."
Germany's Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, for example, has benefited
from the Musk effect. AfD coleader Alice Weidel helped lead the party, which
advocates for nationalist and anti-immigrant policies, to second place in
German parliamentary elections in February.
When Musk interacted with her account in the run-up to those elections, the
average number of daily views she got rose from about 230,000 to 2.2 million.
Germany's domestic intelligence agency in May classified Weidel's party as a
right-wing extremist organization, which would subject the AfD to greater
surveillance. The party, which maintains that it's a victim of politically
motivated defamation, promptly filed a lawsuit against the move, which Musk,
along with top U.S. officials blasted as an attack on free speech. The
designation has been suspended pending judicial review.
The AfD denies any association with Germany's Nazi past -- though, in a chat
with Musk livestreamed on X in January, Weidel falsely described Hitler as a
"communist, socialist guy."
The chat has gotten 16 million views. Musk also appeared at AfD rallies and
endorsed the party in a German newspaper.
AfD officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Naomi Seibt, a German climate skeptic, pinged Musk nearly 600 times between
October 2022 and Jan. 2025. Musk finally engaged in June 2024, when he asked
her to explain why the AfD is so controversial in Germany.
Since then, Musk has replied to, quoted or tagged Seibt more than 50 times,
and her followers have grown by more than 320,000 since Musk took over the
platform. On days Musk interacted with Seibt, her posts, on average, got 2.6
times as many views.
"I didn't intentionally 'invade' Elon's algorithm," Seibt told AP.
"Obviously Elon has a lot of influence and can help share a message even with
those who are usually glued to the legacy media, particularly in Germany."
Seibt said she's now living in the United States because she fears political
persecution in Europe. "Washington DC is the political heart of America and
thus also the safest place for me to be," she said. "I fear the German state
wants me locked up."
Musk has also boosted the influence of political insurgents in the U.K. Days
before British national elections last July, Musk took to X to ask Nigel
Farage, the leader of the populist Reform U.K. party: "Why does the media keep
calling you far-right? What are your policies?"
Farage replied eagerly: "Because we believe in family, country and strong
borders. Call me!"
Such interactions from Musk helped Farage more than triple his daily
audience. Farage did not reply to requests for comment.
In Spain, Rubn Pulido, a columnist for a newspaper published by the
populist Vox party's think tank, hit the jackpot in August, when Musk responded
to two posts in which he argued that rescue boats operated by nongovernmental
organizations effectively help smugglers move migrants to Europe. Pulido's
visibility soared. On days Musk engaged with him, his account got nearly
300,000 views -- roughly three times more than usual.
When Musk didn't interact with Pulido's account, the results were just as
clear. In January, he again inveighed against migrant rescues and sought to get
Musk's attention.
"Hi @elonmusk! Speak up," he urged.
Three weeks later, he tweeted: "Perhaps @elonmusk might find this
interesting."
That post garnered just 5,128 views.
Pulido did not respond to requests for comment.
While Musk helped boost the accounts of such fringe parties and rising
influencers, his interactions did not provide as stark a benefit to more
established politicians, AP found. That was true for both Italian Prime
Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose ruling Brothers of Italy party has neo-fascist
roots, and Dutch politician Geert Wilders, an anti-Islamic firebrand who has
been called the Dutch Donald Trump.
What happens on X doesn't always stay on X
Musk's interactions online have spilled into political endorsements, policy
advocacy -- and money.
X helps users monetize their accounts, through ad revenue sharing and paid
subscription programs as well as direct fundraising links. That means a surge
in attention on X can bring a surge in revenue.
Tommy Robinson, a British anti-immigration agitator who was released from
prison in May, after serving a reduced sentence of seven months for contempt of
court, has a link to his fundraising page on his X profile. Interactions from
Musk more than doubled Robinson's daily views, from around 380,000 to nearly
850,000. Robinson -- whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon -- could not be
reached for comment
Radio Genoa, an account reportedly investigated by Italian authorities last
year for allegedly spreading hate speech about migrants, used X to publicize a
call for a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for legal defense. Radio Genoa has
pinged Musk dozens of times over the last three years, and for good reason: On
days Musk engaged with him, the views on his account doubled. Radio Genoa's
followers surged from less than 200,000 before Musk's engagement to over 1.2
million. Radio Genoa could not be reached for comment.
Eva Vlaardingerbroek -- a conservative Dutch political commentator dubbed
the "shieldmaiden of the far-right" whose account Musk has engaged with three
dozen times -- uses X to solicit tips and has creator status, which allows her
to charge subscription fees. So does Seibt, the German activist -- though she
told AP her earnings from X aren't enough to sustain herself. Vlaardingerbroek
did not respond to requests for comment.
Musk has also advocated for Matteo Salvini, vice premier of Italy and the
leader of the hard-right, anti-migrant League party. On X, Musk's interactions
boosted Salvini's daily visibility more than fourfold. Offline, Salvini has
urged Italy to move ahead with controversial contracts for Starlink and pushed
back against EU efforts to regulate content on X.
Before Fidias Panayiotou -- a 25-year-old social media influencer from
Cyprus with no political experience -- won a surprise seat as an independent in
the European Parliament last year, he spent weeks camped outside Twitter and
Space X headquarters in a highly publicized quest to hug the world's richest
man. In January 2023, his wish came true. Their embrace went viral.
Soon, Musk was interacting with Panayiotou's posts on a variety of subjects,
expanding his typical audience on X by more than 3,000%.
Since taking his seat, Panayiotou -- whose positions often also reflect the
views of Cyprus' traditional leftist establishment -- has praised X on the
floor of the European Parliament, pushed back against regulations that impact
the platform, and credited Musk with sparking his call to fire 80% of EU
bureaucrats.
Musk, evidently, was pleased. "Vote for Fidias," he posted on X, an
endorsement that was viewed more than 11.5 million times. "He is smart, super
high energy and genuinely cares about you!"
In July, after AP asked for comment, Panayiotou posted a video to dispel any
impression that he was Musk's puppet. "I don't have any relationship with Elon
Musk," he said. "We haven't spoken at all since we hugged, neither through
messages, nor by phone, and I've never invited him anywhere."
He said that Musk, unprompted, began reposting his content after he was
elected to the European Parliament.
"I don't think it's a danger to democracy honestly that Elon Musk supports
me," Panayiotou explained in another video. "I think this is the beauty of
democracy."
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