Do Alice Weidel and the AfD benefit from Musk's attention on X?

Has Elon Musk manipulated X to give the AfD more reach? He has made it clear in posts, articles and election events that he is a fan - and at the same time, Alice Weidel’s reach on X has increased significantly. Could these developments be linked? This blog post describes a data analysis in which we take a closer look at which accounts have received how much reach and whether Musk’s influence can be determined. Where does the sudden increase in Weidel’s reach on X come from?

Note: This work has not yet been peer reviewed.

In recent weeks, there has been a lot of fuss about Elon Musk’s possible influence in favour of the AfD. First, on 20 December, he wrote on his platform X (formerly Twitter) that only the AfD can save Germany. On 28 December, Die Welt published a guest article by Musk in which he expressed the same position. Finally, on 9 January, he held a public conversation on X with the AfD candidate Alice Weidel.

As already reported in one place or another, Weidel gained a lot of reach on X. The German parliamentary administration then announced that it would investigate whether Musk is influencing the election campaign. At the same time, the EU Commission is demanding insight into possible changes to X’s recommendation algorithms. This article analyses the possible impact of Musk’s activities on the reach of the AfD and Weidel in particular on social media.