Tesla CEO Elon Musk has vowed to sue German public broadcaster ZDF over a programme in which it accused the X owner of using his platform to encourage rioters in Belfast to “hunt migrants” in the wake of an attempted beheading allegedly committed by a Sudanese asylum seeker.
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (Second German Television), one of two publicly-funded television networks in Germany, is facing the prospect of legal action from the world’s richest man.
In an episode of its flagship ‘Today Live’ programme last week, discussing the role of social media in the recent riots in Northern Ireland, ZDF presenter Christina v. Ungern-Sternberg said: “A brutal attempted murder on a public street in Belfast. Someone films it; the video goes viral. A racist mob subsequently hunts down migrants. Calls for this had come from a British right-wing extremist (Tommy Robinson) and tech billionaire Elon Musk.”
However, the broadcaster did not provide any evidence of Musk or Robinson encouraging their followers to commit any violence. On the contrary, the ZDF programme actually showed an X post from Robinson which explicitly called for demonstrators to remain “peaceful” and “respectful”.
While the protests last weekend did turn violent in and around Belfast and the Northern Ireland Police Service said that some agitators shared what appeared to be a “hit list” of migrant residence targets, there has been no link suggested by law enforcement between the riots and anything said by Musk or Robinson.
Responding to the accusations on Monday, Mr Musk wrote on his X social media platform: “Legal action is being taken against ZDF for their outrageous lies.”
“During the lawsuit against them, we will find out exactly which cretin wrote this terrible lie,” he added.
The German broadcaster has since removed the section of the programme making the accusations against Musk, with the note: “The introduction has been shortened for legal reasons.”
ZDF has also faced steep criticism within Germany over their accusations against Musk, with an editor for the NDR German public broadcaster, Sebastian Eberle, saying: “We cannot and must not work like this. This is completely unacceptable.”
Chief reporter for German paper of record Die Welt, Anna Schneider, accused ZDF of obscuring the actual cause of the unrest in Northern Ireland, which was the horrific beheading attempt on the streets of Belfast, not social media, Elon Musk, or Tommy Robinson.
“The core of the debate, which has almost been forgotten, is the obviously massively misguided migration policy decisions of recent years, which have put moral self-righteousness above control and brought the population into uncertainty. Just as if the citizens were somehow absorbing all the risks that obviously come across the border. That would be worth a fresh ZDF magazine,” she said.
It is not the first time that ZDF has faced criticism over the accuracy of its reporting. Indeed, in February, the public broadcaster was forced to issue an apology after it aired an AI-generated video falsely purporting to show a migrant family being arrested by American Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
ZDF was also forced to issue a retraction last year after its Washington correspondent, Elmar Theveßen, falsely accused assassinated American activist Charlie Kirk of advocating for homosexuals to be stoned to death. Fellow ZDF presenter Dunja Hayali reacted to Kirk’s murder by accusing the Turning Point founder of holding positions that were “too radical, too racist, too misanthropic, misogynistic, and dehumanising.”