Better safe than sorry? Digital Campaign Governance in Germany

Campaigning for votes is as old as democracy. While politicians had to campaign not to be exiled in ancient Greece, today's political actors sought the public's approval to gain office (or stay in power). With the emergence of the Internet as a critical space for political discourse, the increasing importance of social media-based communication for aggregating and voicing political opinions has evolved. Much offline regulation of political advertising does not apply in online spaces. Conversely, like platforms, private actors have assumed a substantial role as providers of online speech spaces with changing and stricter rules (and algorithmic content governance practices) on what political speech is allowed and how it is governed. This paper analyses the status quo of off- and online regulation of political (campaign) speech and identifies governance gaps considering the example of Germany's most recent elections in 2021. Building on an analysis of applicable public and private law, we investigate how different compliance pulls from national and EU law (existing and upcoming) influence political parties' commitments during the recent campaign. These investigations include the DSA, DMA, DGA, and AI Acts. After analyzing how parties engage with state law and (self-regulatory) commitments, the paper discusses responsible online speech governance.