Germany’s public broadcaster ZDF has, following a warning from Elon Musk, removed a false claim that he had encouraged a racist mob to hunt down immigrants after the grotesque knife attack in Belfast last week, reports Die Welt.
It was during the news programme ZDFheute live on 12 June that the presenter opened the broadcast with this allegation. The background was that Musk had responded to a post on X by Tommy Robinson.
Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!! https://t.co/73GDcLLFwv
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 9, 2026
On the afternoon of 9 June, the day after the Sudanese national Hadi Alodid had attempted to cut off Stephen Ogilvie’s head, Robinson called for people to protest in the streets that same evening, whereupon Musk replied that only by protesting loudly and repeatedly could any change occur.
However, neither the American businessman nor the English activist had called for a racist hunt.
Other German journalists also reacted strongly to ZDF’s reporting. The first was Die Welt journalist Anna Schneider, who accused the public broadcaster of disinformation:
“ZDF has invented something Musk never said,”
she stated.
Sebastian Eberle, an editor at Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), also a public broadcaster, joined the criticism and admonished ZDF:
Dear colleagues, with all due respect, this is not acceptable. We cannot and must not work in this way. It is completely unacceptable.
Liebe Kolleginnen und Kollegen in Mainz,
bei allem Respekt. Das geht so nicht. So können und so dürfen wir nicht arbeiten. Das ist völlig inakzeptabel. https://t.co/X5ss2Y11tL
— Sebastian Eberle (@EberleSebastian) June 13, 2026
Elon Musk’s German lawyer Joachim Steinhöfel therefore had an easy task when, in a letter to ZDF, he accused the broadcaster of unlawful defamation and a gross breach of journalistic principles, and demanded that the allegation be rendered null and void.
In order to avoid being sued by the world’s richest man, ZDF chose to remove the disputed content, which Musk himself had described as “outrageous lies” when he announced legal action against the broadcaster.
The recording of the ZDF broadcast from 12 June has now been modified, and a subtitle merely states that “the introduction has been shortened for legal reasons”. The website now states that Tommy Robinson called for protests and that Elon Musk shared the post.
The case brings to mind the BBC’s cross-editing of Donald Trump’s speech on 6 January 2021, which made it appear as though the then outgoing President had encouraged violence – a technique also used by NRK.
The media of the deep state have few inhibitions about portraying MAGA and opponents of mass immigration in the worst possible light.