Report 4898

A wave of fake news has targeted German politics and they almost always have the same goal: to create uncertainty, even chaos, in an attempt to strengthen the extreme wings. There is a week to go until the elections and the vote in Germany is an unprecedented stress test of democracy, in which US Vice President Vance has just entered with a bang, confusing Moscow with Europe, accusing it of "censoring and imprisoning adversaries". Let's analyze the last few months. In January, two videos were released on social media platforms in Germany: the 90 million euro villa of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Hollywood before the Los Angeles fire incinerated it and also that of the president of the German Greens, Franziska Brantner, complete with a Google Earth map. The message is: "They make millions by betraying the interests of ordinary people". They are artificially created fake news, but in the meantime, reposted everywhere, they get millions of views. Franziska Brantner, 45, also ironically dismantled them, photographing herself with a cocktail in her hand in the gray Berlin weather and commenting: "I'm sitting in my Californian villa and I'd like to show you how Russian bots operate."

The Russian factory

Scholz's video was released on January 10 on TikTok by Vinceunsympatischtv, a German account that calls itself political satire, but in reality mainly publishes content promoting the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Of course, in the sea of disinformation, there are both small and large fish in the water. Since we're talking about Germany, the Russians --- understood as a state --- have a special role. It is thanks to the investigative journalists of the independent news outlet Correctiv - the same group that 15 months ago uncovered the AfD's remigration plans - that at least one of these campaigns has come to light. With such a series of details that it is finally possible to understand Moscow's modus operandi. These are 102 sites, linked to each other and apparently news portals that serve as a base for the Russians. Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center, which made it possible to identify them, has called this galaxy Storm 1516. They are doppelgänger sites, that is, duplicates: one is almost identical to Spiegel, others have names like Andere Meinung or Klartext («The Other Opinion» and «Speak Plainly»), still others take the names of defunct newspapers, such as the Berliner Tageblatt. But a good part of them, even if registered, are still dormant, like terrorist cells. Upon closer inspection, the sites are full of articles written with ChatGpt, errors included, summarizing content from far-right German newspapers (Report 24, Philosophia Perennis, Compact) and Russian TV RT, banned in the EU.

Who runs it

The sites of Storm 1516 are run by the American John Mark Dougan. A former marine and deputy sheriff in Palm Beach, Florida, he is an activist of the far-right US movement Alt-Right, known for the disinformation campaign against Kamala Harris, who has obtained political asylum in Moscow. He has good military training, knows US police systems and, finally, has a Western mind: all this makes him a valuable asset for Moscow. The Washington Post dedicated a long profile to him, claiming that he is paid directly by the GRU, Putin's military service. He responded in an email like this: «It's all made up. In reality, I find the Russian government rather idiotic, a bunch of bureaucrats incapable of getting anything done». Initially, the sites, which use artificial intelligence, relied on servers located in the US, in Silicon Valley, now they transit on those made available to them by the new czar of Putin's disinformation: Valery Korovin. And Korovin is the head of the Center for Geopolitical Expertise (CPE) in Moscow, which took the place of the troll factory in St. Petersburg, the infamous IRA founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin. Let us remember that Prigozhin, called "Putin's chef", was the leader of the Wagner militia who mutinied in Ukraine to march with his men on Moscow and died in the explosion of his plane. We are, in other words, at the heart of the power of the Kremlin which considers the fog of information a geopolitical weapon. As for Korovin, on December 31, 2024, the US Treasury placed him under sanctions for having "attempted to influence the American elections" and "built a server hosting generative AI tools".

How it works

How the disinformation machine is organized can be seen through some news that have spread widely and whose origins Correctiv has identified.
«An African gigolo provided sexual services to German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during an official trip to Africa». The news is based on a video story by a West African, who is actually an actor, published on the Nigerian website Daily Post. At first glance it seems like news, but it is actually a branded content, i.e. a paid advertisement that does not pass through the editorial staff's control. On July 31, the news was picked up by Zeitgeschenen.de, one of the 102 sites of Dougan's army, with the title: "Where do German taxes go? Baerbock goes on sex tourism with an African gigolo during official trips." From there, it was relaunched by pro-Kremlin sites and then by influencers, generating 4,300 shares in a few hours. Then it went viral, so much so that the German Foreign Ministry was forced to deny it, declaring that "it is false" spread by "pro-Russian disinformation portals." But by now it had reached millions of people.
The other example is a news item that has also circulated widely in Italy. On December 17, 2024, the Kenyan website Tuko.co.ke, in another paid publication, wrote that "based on an agreement established at the beginning of the year by Kenyan President William Ruto and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, 1.9 million Kenyan workers will travel to Germany to fill roles in sectors that are experiencing a severe labor shortage." These three lines became the basis for an article on Presseneu.de (one of Dougan's 102), then replicated by sister sites and taken up by well-known pro-Russian influencers. It sparked a political debate that lasted five days. In Italy, it was relaunched as news by numerous newspapers, including traditional press. The truth, however, was different. On September 13, 2024, Kenyan Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi and German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser signed a bilateral agreement in Berlin: Germany opens legal channels for a few thousand skilled workers from Kenya, in exchange for Kenya repatriating illegal Kenyan migrants. So we start from a real fact, we have a foreign news site launch the completely manipulated news for a fee, which is then picked up in the homeland and put in the "fans" of all affiliates.

The multiplier effect

Finally, a key role is played by the influencers who post this content on social media. According to Correctiv's analysis, among the most important in Germany are Alina Lipp (Telegram), Michael Wittwer (extreme politician of Pro Chemnitz), Jovica Jovic, Alena Dirksen (restaurateur, very active). No one has proven that they have ever received compensation. Secondly, there are hundreds of sympathizing accounts. It looks like an updated version of the old KGB manuals. It is no coincidence that these news items target the most anti-Putin politicians like Baerbock and Habeck. It seems incredible that such a small fake news item can unleash such fires, but that is how the principle of contagion works and when the poison of fake news enters circulation it is indistinguishable from the normal flow of information. Furthermore, even if the news item is denied, it persists in memory. And sooner or later, we have all fallen for some falsehoods.

Musk (over 217 million followers on X) has developed a maniacal obsession with Germany, allowing AfD content to reach an audience never seen before.

Musk, the partner

The world's richest man's support for Alternative für Deutschland has been a game changer. Musk (over 217 million followers on X) has developed a maniacal obsession with Germany, allowing AfD content to reach an audience never seen before. The interview with Alice Weidel was watched live by 200,000 people, but the individual clips have had millions of views. The one where the AfD leader claims that "Hitler was a communist", while Musk nods, has been seen by over 20 million people. X's algorithmic model, explains Newsguard to Dataroom, favors content with high engagement (interaction), pushing the most extremist posts to the top. Indeed, the posts of Alice Weidel and Nazi nostalgic Björn Höcke have become more visible. Communications expert Johannes Hillje speaks of a real acceleration effect that Musk has given to the AfD, and AfD MEP Marc Jongen has acknowledged it: there is «a radical change that we are benefiting from», Musk is «a great partner in our commitment against internet censorship». After all, another great Trumpian strategist, Steve Bannon, had theorized almost ten years ago: «Flood the zone with shit (flood the field with s....), anything goes: falsehoods, exaggerations, anything that allows you to advance your political battle». In short: disinform without any limits and respect for citizens. And the strategy, evidently, works.

(...) in Germany, the main issue is the convergence of pro-Russian fake news and far-right propaganda (...)

Countermeasures

Statistics in hand, people are aware of the problem. According to a Bitkom survey, 88% of Germans fear electoral manipulation, 31% say they have encountered it. The most suspected are Russia (45%), the USA (42%), China (26%). 80% ask the government to deal with it, 71% even want an independent ministry "with resources and means" to combat it. In Germany, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has set up a pre-election task force for social media. In addition, the government has created the Center for Detecting Manipulation of Foreign Information located in Berlin: it has a staff of 12 people, but they themselves admit that they have not managed to develop all the countermeasures. Finally, many parties have taken cover. The Greens, the Russians' first target, have a code of conduct and an internal team that helps MPs under attack. The first piece of advice? "Keep cool." Don't intervene if the news, however false, has little following. Most fake news is born and dies on Telegram and getting too excited only amplifies it.
Of course, in Germany, the main issue is the convergence between pro-Russian fake news and far-right propaganda: to a large extent they feed off each other, especially after Musk's support for the AfD. But as we now know well, the purpose of fake news is not to make people believe they are true, but to generate distrust towards institutions, making the true indistinguishable from the false as Hannah Arendt wrote with great lucidity fifty years ago. In the case of the "Russia campaign" the political objectives seem clear: to weaken support for Ukraine, to create divisions by exploiting sensitive issues such as immigration and the economic crisis, to strengthen anti-establishment populists. In essence, weakening the strong link of Europe. But perhaps there is also a more subtle and malignant ambition. If even Germany, historically among the most stable countries in the EU, is unable to defend itself from these assaults, the message is clear: no democracy is safe anymore.

dataroom@corriere.it