NewsGuard Error Message Monitor: August 2021

The floods in Germany triggered new election misinformation, and Russian and right-wing websites continued to target the Greens with false statements before the German federal election

With less than a month before Germany elects a new government, misinformation about the upcoming Bundestag election has prevailed on German social media and has found a place in the main right-leaning corner of the Internet.

Breakdown: Although the Green Party is still the main target of misinformation, the recent floods in Germany have brought new narratives of electoral misinformation regarding alleged misconduct during the disaster, including a far-fetched association claiming that the flood was orchestrated entirely for political reasons This development is accompanied by an increase in claims against Amin Rashet, the prime minister candidate of the Christian Democratic Union Party.In its newly launched German election misinformation trackerNewsGuard recorded five false narratives surrounding the German flood-four of which mentioned Laschet individually.

In addition, NewsGuard found 16 false statements and fabricated quotes about the Green Party and its politicians, including from Russian propaganda websites.In fact, a confidential report issued by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior in mid-June 2021 was first disclosed by a Berlin-based newspaper Daily mirror, To warn Russia of propaganda attacks against Green Party candidate Annalena Baerbock. The Press Guard also found 12 false statements about trade union parties (consisting of the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union, the CDU and the CDU) and 6 false statements about the Socialist Party. Democratic Party Germany (SPD). So far, NewsGuard has not found any false claims about the left-wing party, the center-right Liberal Democratic Party (FDP) or the far-right German Alternative Party (AfD).

The July 2021 flood in western Germany has become a catalyst for election misinformation, mainly spread by right-wing websites.

• For example, the anonymously operated website N23.tv ⁠—covers German politics, health, and other issues, and posted misinformation about COVID-19 and was rated red by NewsGuard because it “seriously violates basic news practices” ⁠— July Propagating the false claim that the German flood deliberately influenced opinion polls before the election.
  • In July 2021 articleAccording to the website, “Perhaps this is a deliberate disaster, a so-called’game changer’ aimed at correcting the polls shortly before the Bundestag election. In the days after the flood, German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), German Chancellor Candidate Armin Laschet (CDU) and some others tried to use the disaster to disguise themselves as someone in need. But this is obviously counterproductive.” The article also pointed out, “The obvious anomaly… strong It shows that the flooding of the whole place and region is deliberate, and may even be deliberately forced.”
  • According to data from Facebook’s social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle, this article was published by a Facebook account, which has more than 60,000 fans.
  • There is no evidence that the flood was carefully planned for political reasons. Scientists attribute the flooding to high rainfall, which may be caused or accelerated by climate change.
• Similarly, the website of the Austrian right-wing weekly newspaper Wochenblick, which was rated red by NewsGuard, spread false claims that the federal government’s assistance to people affected by the flood was “so small” because in 2014 the government decided to transfer money from the flood relief fund to refugees.In July 2021 article, The website states, “As early as 2014, [national newspaper] According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the headline of the Süddeutsche Zeitung is “Government Uses Flood Relief Funds for Refugees”-the money invested in the Flood Relief Fund but not used should be used for refugee assistance. “
  • In fact, the reconstruction fund after the 2013 flood Nothing to do With the current flood assistance, the federal government had not decided to spend money from the refugee fund in 2014.
• This statement also got Right-wing influencer “Neverforgetniki”, Its posts have been liked more than 4,000 times Facebook with Twitter.

Right-wing and Russian propaganda websites also continue to promote misinformation against the Green Party, especially the party’s prime minister candidate Annalena Belbok. Prominent narratives include claims that Belbok is Klaus Schwab, the founder and head of the World Economic Forum, and the “puppet” of the U.S. Democratic super donor George SorosSchwab and Soros are often referred to as “financial elites” on such sites.

• The right-wing anti-immigration website FreieWelt.net, rated red by NewsGuard, used stories such as “Annalena Baerbock is the darling of globalists” to target the Green Party.this Articles from April 2021 According to CrowdTangle, the news was shared on FreieWelt.net’s official Facebook page, which had approximately 25,000 fans as of late June 2021. When referring to Belbok, the article said, “As a member of Klaus Schwab’s’cadre school’, she will become an ideal puppet to intimidate Germany with globalist interests.”
• The site is owned by a Berlin-based non-profit organization founded by Beatrix von Storch, the Federal Deputy Spokesperson of Germany’s main far-right AfD party. (Currently, the site is run by her husband Sven von Storch.)
• The same article includes one Twitter The same post from April 2021 said: “I congratulate George Soros on being a candidate for prime minister” and posted a photo of Baerbock and Soros at the Munich Security Conference in February 2019, which was originally published by Baerbock On her Instagram.
• However, there is no credible evidence that Belbok or the Greens are under the control of Schwab or Soros.

Other misinformation against the Green Party appeared in June 2021 Opinion Article On DE.RT.com (NewsGuard red rating website) owned by the Russian government, the website collected DebunkLies that Baerbock does not have any college degrees, and that she lied about her education on her resume. The DE.RT.com article stated that Balbok’s resume was “as true as Hitler’s diary.” (This is a reference to a scandal in the German media, in which Stern magazine purchased a set of 60-volume diaries for 9.3 million deutsche marks-3.7 million U.S. dollars-in 1983, which allegedly belonged to Adolf Hitler, which was later proved to be a counterfeit.)

• According to CrowdTangle, this article was shared on DE.RT.com’s official Facebook page, which has approximately 518,000 fans as of late June 2021.
• A variant of this statement also appeared on the far-right NewsGuard Red rating site AnonymousNews.ru.The site was registered through a domain registration service located in Moscow, speculated in the title of an article Articles from May 2021: “The Green Party Scandal: Did the presidential candidate Baerbock buy her college degree?” According to CrowdTangle, this article was shared on the official Facebook page of AnonymousNews.ru, which had nearly 30,000 people as of late June 2021 fan.

Why we should care: Germany’s political climate is affected on the eve of the federal elections. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been an increase in pandemic-related protests in Germany. According to reports, in 2020, Germany is the European country that is most resistant to government measures to curb the spread of COVID-19. many media reportAlthough these protests were supported by the German ideological field, NewsGuard found that they were mainly fueled by misinformation on masks, tests, vaccines, and other COVID-related topics on the right-wing news site-a phenomenon that could happen again in Germany Federal elections.

• In August 2020, right-wing protesters tried to storm the Reichstag building, setting a worrying precedent. France is scheduled to hold presidential elections in April 2022 and is one of several European countries that will closely monitor developments in Germany in the coming months.