A powerhouse legal group founded to defend Christians’ freedom is now defending Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, in his quest to overturn European regulations on hate speech and misinformation on social media.
Alliance Defending Freedom says it is “Supporting Elon Musk’s X in Fight Against Global Censorship” by attacking the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which regulates social media content.
ADF and its partner, ADF International, claim the EU regulations are “an oppressive, all-encompassing digital censorship regime” and the EU has “targeted” Musk and his social media company X.
“The EU has decided that it knows best when it comes to free speech, which the governing body seems to characterize more like a nuisance than a right, despite clear EU law protecting free speech as a human right,” said ADF in one article.
ADF, a $123 million nonprofit, was founded in 1994 by James Dobson and other conservative Christian leaders to battle the ACLU. It has won 16 Supreme Court cases and assisted in others. Dobson explained its purpose in a Focus on the Family broadcast, “Where Are the Christian Attorneys?”
“The civil war is raging,” Dobson said. “And we’re losing. And we’re losing not because we don’t have a legal argument to make, we’re losing because we don’t have the resources to make available to Christians who are every day losing more of their basic rights.”
Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena, in Washington, D.C., on January 20. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
The European Union enacted its Digital Services Act in 2023 to prevent harmful, illegal and manipulated online content. The DSA began its investigation of Musk’s X that December. ADF claims X has been “targeted” but the DSA also has investigated Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram), Chinese retailer Temu, and TikTok, which has resolved its issues with the EU.
Instead of seeking resolution, Musk — who is worth more than $850 billion — has doubled down, using his platform to promote Alternative for Germany, the far-right, anti-immigrant political party Germany has classified as a “confirmed right-wing extremist endeavor.”
ADF is defending Musk in the court of public opinion with a series of questionable claims, including claims of EU targeting and hostility.
In another claim, ADF says restrictions required by the Digital Services Act will affect not only Europe but the world. “The EU law is censoring speech not just in Europe, but also in the United States and around the whole world,” says ADF, without explaining how EU rules would affect U.S. social media users.
“If this is allowed to stand, the EU will have the unchallenged ability to police the global public square, with dire consequences for online free speech,” ADF said without explanation. “The DSA was built for global speech control.”
ADF also criticizes European countries for not embracing American-style freedom of speech, which is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. “Many world leaders haven’t learned the lesson of our Founders,” said ADF. “Instead, unelected officials in the European Union see free speech as a threat and censorship as a non-negotiable.”
ADF, Focus and Family Research Council have long supported Musk, who does not claim to be a Christian, and is a serial violator of traditional family values.
ADF’s arguments have been promoted by U.S. anti-abortion groups and conservative news outlets.
Musk is a serial rule- and law-breaker, and his companies (Tesla, SpaceX, xAI and X) are the subject of more than 30 U.S. investigations, pending complaints or enforcement actions. Musk donated nearly $300 million to candidate Donald Trump’s campaign, and Trump’s administration has slow-walked these cases and fired prosecutors leading some of them.
ADF, Focus and Family Research Council have long supported Musk, who does not claim to be a Christian, and is a serial violator of traditional family values who fathered more than a dozen children with different women, none of whom are his wife.
These groups say Musk is not to blame for the obscenity that has flourished on X since he bought and renamed Twitter. In 2024, Focus proclaimed: “Taylor Swift Deepfakes Should Inspire Outrage — But X isn’t to Blame.”
More recently, Focus defended Musk and X’s new “Grok Imagine” feature that allowed users to create fake pornographic images of real people. “The ‘Grok Imagine’ debacle exposes America’s lack of AI regulation,” said Focus, which again held Musk blameless. “Grok’s latest shenanigans illustrate why children and teens should not use AI chatbots.”
“Musk’s lasting legacy will not be cutting government waste, normalizing or popularizing the electric car or even commercializing space travel,” said Focus in 2025 as he ended his stint leading the tax-cutting effort DOGE. “At a time when conservative Christians were being silenced by the big tech social media titans, Musk stepped in and wrestled the reigns of Twitter back from the brink of a dictatorial stranglehold. … Elon Musk has done his greatest work in helping rescue free speech.”