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It can happen here… Berlin’s 38K strong Covid truther protest- Europe’s largest - didn’t happen in a vacuum. I’ve spend the past year looking at German-lang. influencers & disinfo patterns. Here some thoughts (incl my @ForeignPolicy article) – (1/15) https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/09/02/germany-is-losing-the-fight-against-qanon/
Govt Covid response is popular. Merkel enjoys a 71% approval rating. Jens Spahn 60%. Finance Minister Scholz, 57%. But 20% of Germans believe still the phrase “Lügenpresse“ as a description of German media has some truth to it. https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.umfrage-jeder-fuenfte-luegenpresse-vorwurf-fuer-berechtigt.821e8e33-f0f1-4e46-99af-a52f71a2dc7a.html (2/15)
DE has a highly regarded gatekeeper media. But it lacks access to channels to niche communities already hostile to mainstream media. It also lacks the social media savvy of US, UK, FR media. (3/15) https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/it-medien/analyse-neues-rezo-video-die-sehr-penible-zerstoerung-der-presse/25880910.html?ticket=ST-7446952-6DcMzKvIc9bQn2t3JYmO-ap1
COVID has helped the DE disinfo space to metastasize. Querdenken 711 has developed connective tissue with the Reichsbürger, Atilla Hildmann and the QAnon’s growing DE following as well as esoterics, hippies & mainstream Germans (4/15) https://www.focus.de/politik/deutschland/demos-in-stuttgart-am-samstag-itler-busunternehmer-qanon-anhaenger-die-hintermaenner-der-anti-corona-bewegung_id_12291587.html
As noted, the #b2908 protest had an eclectic mix of “Free Assange” banners, QAnon signs, & American, Rainbow, Russian, German and Wilhelmine Imperial War flags; a peace treaty for RU and the US; a storming of the Bundestag; & RFKJr. (5/15)
Attila Hildmann, the Turkish-German vegan chef-turned-influencer w over 80K followers on Telegram is quickly becoming the face of Germany’s anti-lockdown, anti-Merkel nationalism (6/15) https://www.rbb24.de/politik/thema/2020/coronavirus/beitraege_neu/2020/08/ermittlungen-gegen-attila-hildmann-laufen-noch.html
Germany has the 2nd highest # of QAnon followers after the US. NewsGuard has identified more than 448K QAnon followers in Europe. There are over 200K in Germany. (7/15) https://www.euronews.com/2020/07/30/qanon-theories-are-merging-with-european-conspiracies-report
German language Telegram Channels linked to Q-Anon have gone from 10K to approximately 137K in the past five months. The German language language YouTube channel, Qlobal-Change, has over 17 million views (8/15) https://t3n.de/news/radikalisierung-telegram-nazis-1312724/?utm_source=cleverpush&utm_medium=push-notification&utm_campaign=push-2020-08-24T13%3A29%3A47
German followers of conspiracy theories tend to be younger than in the US. This could be related to tech radicalization. It also tracks w high levels under 50 AfD support in 2019 elections in Brandenburg & Saxony (9/15) https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2019-09/waehler-ostdeutschland-analyse-alter-geschlecht-beruf-schulabschluss-religion
Social media platforms, mass private messaging systems and influencer speech don’t have sufficient normative & reg guardrails to address Covid disinfo in DE (10/15)
The 2017 Maas Law which has take down rules for hate speech has nudged platforms to also be more vigilant in their disinfo take down policies but… (11/15) https://www.dw.com/en/germany-implements-new-internet-hate-speech-crackdown/a-41991590
German-language disinformation on Covid is removed from platforms less often than English or French-language equivalents, partly due to staff shortages (12/15).
https://www.newsguardtech.com/facebook-super-spreaders-europe/
https://www.newsguardtech.com/facebook-super-spreaders-europe/
The Maas Law’s hate speech rules don’t apply to messenger services like Telegram. Telegram allows for groups up to 200K. WhatApp’s 256 group limit. (13/15) https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/politik/gesellschaft/corona-gegenoeffentlichkeit-telegram-100.html
If the 2019 Rezo experience taught Berlin anything, it is that DE influencers can also impact German politics (14/15) https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-cdu-slams-youtuber-rezo-over-political-viral-video/a-48839177
Germany should look at Quebec and Finland for ways to use influencer trust and in-group credibility built up with niche audiences to fight COVID disinformation (15/15) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/01/finland-enlists-social-influencers-in-fight-against-covid-19
