German Court Orders X to Hand Over Hungarian Election Data to Researchers

A court in Germany on Feb. 17 has ordered X, owned by Elon Musk, to hand over data related to the upcoming election in Hungary to researchers for scrutiny, in a case that could have broader implications for how the European Union’s new tech rules are enforced.

The lawsuit was brought by Democracy Reporting International (DRI), a Berlin-based civil society organisation that receives funding from EU programs and national governments, including Germany and the Netherlands, and conducts research on online political discourse.

The Berlin Court of Appeal’s ruling on Feb. 18 was based on the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which grants “vetted researchers” access to certain platform data for research.

Michael Meyer-Resende, executive director of DRI, confirmed the ruling to The Epoch Times by email.

“DRI conducts public interest research on online debates around elections in many countries. The online space should not be a black box,” Meyer-Resende said.

“To do our work, we need effective access to public data by the platforms. The ruling today confirms that we have a right to it. We expect that X finally grants us that access.”

Musk said in a Feb. 18 post on X, responding to the news: “We are open-sourcing our algorithm. Not sure what more they want.”

The decision will now be followed by further legal proceedings to determine how the data are accessed and transferred.

The ruling could set a precedent for other organizations to file lawsuits in Germany seeking access to platform data under Article 40(12) of the DSA, or whether such cases must be heard in Ireland, where X’s European headquarters is located.

The case follows a similar legal challenge in 2025, when DRI and the Society for Civil Rights previously failed to obtain similar data from X for Germany’s 2025 federal election.

DRI stated at the time that it aims to use X’s data to “study the influence of social media platforms on the upcoming Bundestag election and to increase transparency regarding potential manipulations before the vote.”

It claimed that “access to relevant metrics” prevents “disinformation from spreading.”

X said that it “believes this ruling violates fundamental rights to due process that are guaranteed by the German Constitution.”

The social media company said that it is “committed to defending these rights through the legal system and will not back down in the face of injustice.”

Hungary will have its general election on April 12.

Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar started his party’s election campaign in Budapest on Feb. 15.

Magyar, a former member of Fidesz, the governing party led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, founded the center-right Tisza party in 2024 after breaking with the government. Fidesz has been in power since 2010.

Magyar said in a series of Feb. 14 posts on X that he had meetings with about a dozen European leaders at last week’s Munich Security Conference in Germany, including Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Magyar’s remarks came a day after Orban said the EU poses a greater threat to Hungary than Russia.

“We must come to terms with the idea that those who love freedom should not fear the East, but Brussels, and they should turn their anxious gaze towards Brussels,” Orban told supporters on Feb. 14.

“The ‘Putin, Putin, Putin’ mantra is crude and unserious, but Brussels is a tangible reality, and a direct source of danger. We would never have thought this 20 years ago! But this is the bitter truth, and we shall not tolerate it.”

Relations between Budapest and Brussels have deteriorated in recent years. The EU has frozen more than 6.3 billion euros (about $6.8 billion) in funding earmarked for Hungary, citing concerns about corruption and democratic standards.

The Epoch Times has contacted X for comment.