BERLIN — The German defense ministry and the Bundeswehr national army will suspend their accounts on Elon Musk’s social media platform X, citing an inability to have factual debate on the site.
Back in December, billionaire entrepreneur Musk endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in a post on X and since then has used the social media platform he bought in 2022 to berate mainstream German politicians, calling center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz a “fool” and touting the AfD as the only force that can “save” the country.
The decision to exit the platform by the defense ministry, which is controlled by Scholz’s social-democratic ally Boris Pistorius, comes just days after Musk — who is a top adviser to United States President-elect Donald Trump — held a fawning live chat on X with Alice Weidel, the AfD’s candidate for chancellor in Germany’s upcoming snap election on Feb. 23.
“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 announcing its exit from X.
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 and the leader of the fiscally conservative Free Democrats, ex-Finance Minister Christian Lindner, has also sought out Musk’s personal support 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 which she 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, university … They just learn about gender studies.” Musk replied: “It sounds like the woke mind virus has infected Germany quite badly.”
In the run-up to the discussion, two German labor unions and the country’s federal court also said they would suspend their accounts.
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.
This story has been updated.
