Shortly before Christmas, German media policy ensures that there is one nice gift after another.
On Wednesday, the Federal Cartel Office dropped the proceedings against Google for the "Google News Showcase" offer (FAZ of December 22) and withdrew itself from the question of whether the digital group was acting anti-competitively.
Sven Giegold (Greens), State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, wrote to the EU Commission on Thursday.
On behalf of the federal government, he calls on you to take Elon Musk and Twitter to your chest.
"General terms and conditions that change almost every hour, erratic justifications for extensive restrictions on links and blocking" by journalists threaten freedom of competition and "pose a risk to freedom of expression, information and the press," says State Secretary Giegold.
He therefore wrote to the responsible EU Commissioners Margrethe Vestager and Thierry Breton to place Twitter under the direct supervision of the EU Commission in order to prevent Elon Musk's anti-competitive behavior on Twitter.
What Giegold has in mind is EU intervention under the new Digital Markets Act.
This law and competition law are "sharp swords against abusive behavior by market-dominating companies".
The EU should initiate a market investigation and think about the "Digital Services Act" "perspectively" to ensure freedom of competition and freedom of expression.
A case for the Digital Services Act
That sounds good the first time you read it - just as "good" as the Bundeskartellamt's declaration of capitulation.
The stupid thing is that with his step, Giegold takes German media policy and – above all – the German media regulator out of the game and mixes up the categories.
The Digital Markets Act is designed to ensure free competition.
He targets oligopolists like Google and Facebook.
In terms of sheer size and importance, Twitter is far removed from their importance.
Giegold knows that, and he also writes that, only he believes that the corresponding "market investigation" will lead to Twitter being identified as a "gatekeeper", i.e. a very big player.
That doesn't sound like the market survey should be open-ended.
And as far as competition is concerned, it can be said that
Freedom of expression, on the other hand, which the Green Secretary of State sees threatened by Musk's pirouettes, is a case for the "Digital Services Act".
This is a law that deals with the content that digital companies distribute and holds them responsible for it.
This law will come into force in the spring of 2024. So it is of no use at the moment.
Musk seems to confuse some with his egg dances
It is also pointless and dangerous to view freedom of expression and the rule of law solely as issues of competition.
That's how the EU thinks, insanely, and thinks it's quite natural to regulate the media.
Is that now also the position of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Federal Government?
Then the future of freedom of opinion, which is guaranteed by Article 5 of the Basic Law, would be in a bad way.
And what about the Network Enforcement Act, which is there to combat hate, hate speech and misrepresentation?
What about the sovereignty of the federal states in media policy, with federal media supervision and media regulation that has to be organized “independently of the state”?
Elon Musk seems to confuse some people with his egg dances.
The people at Alphabet/Google (and Facebook) act smarter.
They don't put on a cheap show that goads politicians.
Your maneuvers, which are accompanied by thousands of lawyers, do not call the Federal Ministry of Economics into action.
We have the best example of this: At the beginning of November, Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck received a letter from the supervisory board of the collecting society Corint Media, in which they urgently pointed out the importance of the Cartel Office proceedings against Google discussed here yesterday.
To the best of our knowledge, Habeck has not yet responded.
No dying word.
His Secretary of State blows air bubbles for this.