With less than a month until Germans go out and vote in the parliamentary election, lawmakers are warning that authoritarian states, including Russia, are using disinformation to stoke instability.
A disinformation campaign originating from Moscow might try and influence the election in Germany set to take place in less than four weeks, authorities warn.
The German Foreign Ministry has identified Doppelgänger, a Russian disinformation campaign established in 2022 designed to make a dent in Western support of Ukraine and previously identified in France and the US as being behind tens of thousands of fake news social media accounts in Germany.
CSU MP Thomas Erndl confirmed that the government is aware Russia is trying to influence elections in Europe, especially in Poland and Germany.
“Russia is making massive efforts, and there will certainly be consequences. The rise of the AfD, for example, is based precisely on these mechanisms, sowing doubt about our state and institutions, spreading the narrative that nothing is functioning properly, and portraying foreigners and refugees as a major problem,” Erndl told Euronews.
These messages often stem from a kernel of truth, but they are then amplified and exaggerated through such mechanisms,” he added.
Germany needs to improve its defences and that while initial efforts and initiatives exist, more funding is necessary, according to Erndl.
“We must also deploy modern technologies such as artificial intelligence to analyse these activities. However, above all, we need public awareness and education. And I believe we still have a long way to go in that regard,” he said.
Risks have grown
The German Foreign Ministry recently announced that over 50,000 Twitter/X accounts were identified and subsequently reported for deletion.
Doppelgänger clones reputable mainstream media websites, such as Der Spiegel and Welt, replacing them with similar-sounding domains and replicating their design. Fake articles are then spread by bot-like accounts on social media, enabling propaganda to spread whilst appearing as legitimate news.
“We are seeing massive influence efforts on social media — through accounts, through mechanisms, through fake accounts, and through fabricated news sites. We need to respond to this properly,” Erndl said, adding that while governments can target these efforts, public awareness is crucial.
“Wherever legal violations occur, they must be prosecuted using our legal mechanisms, although this is not easy when the source is abroad,” he explained. “That’s why strong cooperation within Europe is essential, along with the use of technical measures to curb such interference.”
Erndl says intelligence services — whose powers were restricted in recent years due to concerns over data protection and privacy rights — need to be given more funding, personnel and better resources to tackle the problem, along with broader legal powers.
“We have now reached a point where the risks have grown, and we must reconsider the balance between personal rights and the security of our society and country,” Erndl said.
“I think the pendulum needs to swing back towards prioritising security requirements, which means granting intelligence agencies more powers again.”
“We cannot complain that our intelligence services are not protecting us adequately if we do not provide them with the necessary tools to do so,” he concluded.
Zeroing in on Germany
Disinformation campaigns now creeping up on Germans are posing a serious problem, Greens MP Konstantin von Notz told Euronews.
“Targeted dissemination of disinformation by authoritarian states with the aim of poisoning democratic discourses, dividing societies and discrediting democratic institutions is a very serious problem in terms of security policy,” he said.
“Not only Russia, but also China and other authoritarian states have recognised how vulnerable our democracies and constitutional states are.”
Both the EU and German Interior Ministry need to be held responsible for failing to tackle the issue of disinformation adequately, according to von Notz — and a solution needs to be urgently found.
“A whole bouquet of measures is necessary. We must resolutely pursue the rule of law regulation of the large online platforms. We need to strengthen the supervisory authorities. We need to restructure counterintelligence and increase social resilience through more media literacy training,” von Notz explained.
Last month, Polish Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said Warsaw had uncovered an unnamed Russian group that has planned to use disinformation to influence elections by recruiting Poles on the dark web to do its bidding.
Romania also annulled its presidential election just last December after it accused Russia of interfering.
According to von Notz, Russia, China and other authoritarian states have been zeroing in on Germany with their malign interference campaigns, especially in the context of elections.
Various attack scenarios are possible, he believes.
“It is absolutely clear that our security authorities in particular must be very attentive. But citizens are also called upon to be aware of how much disinformation is deliberately circulated, especially around the election date,” Von Notz concludes.
Euronews has reached out to the Russian embassy in Berlin for comment, but has received no response at the time of publication.
