Here is the original poll in German.
German voters are overwhelmingly concerned about foreign election interference according to a new poll published by the Brussels-based digital industry association Bitkom.
Overall, the poll found that 88% of the more than 1,000 eligible voters surveyed expressed fear that outside forces, whether governments, groups or individuals, would actively attempt to sway the vote through social media campaigns.
Ranked highest among those suspected of nefarious activity was Russia (45%), followed by the US (42%) and China (26%). There was also concern voiced over East European actors (8%).
Those voters polled also provided insight into how they form their political opinions, with 82% citing conversations with friends and family, 76% television and 69% the internet.
Some 80% of respondents felt the next government should address the problem of potential internet and social media misinformation by prioritizing digital policy.
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It’s nice that they fear it, but it would be better if they learned to recognize it and act accordingly.
Musk was given his own opinion piece in a big Sunday newspaper recently (Welt am Sonntag, published by Axel Springer), praising the right-wing extremist party AfD and telling people to vote for them. Then, he was part of a (hilariously bad) live stream with AfD’s leader Alice Weidel. And then he appeared on their party congress. And just today, Bild, which is Germany’s most popular trash-newspaper and made by, drum-roll please, Axel Springer, published an article (archive link, German), implying that the current wave of protests against fascism and right-wing-extremists is just state-controlled propaganda. And this covered only [the most obvious part of] the US-side of things.
But don’t worry, Russia has been caught recently as well: It came to light, that a series of vandalized cars, where the exhausts were stuffed with building foam and stickers of the Green’s leader were put on the cars, were most likely ordered by Russia and not done by some green extremists.
And how is that knowledge reflected in the polls? Right-wing-extremists up, Greens and moderate parties down. Greeeeeat!
I’m so sick of reading stuff about people being afraid of being manipulated by someone. Yes! People are trying to manipulate you, you blithering dingus, maybe you should try not being so easily manipulable instead of sitting there acting like you can’t do anything about it! Stop getting your news exclusively from social media and other sources which have been manipulative in the past. And use a bit of common sense when you’re being told that the evil Greens want to take away your pet, turn off your heating and ruin each and every farmer in Germany. Sure, there might be more subtle manipulation going on, but not falling for the really obvious stuff would at least be a great start.
TL;DR: Angry rant about people being afraid of manipulation while just letting it happen.
Given that the AfD vote is greater than 10%, who do the AfD voters fear is manipulating the election?
die grüüünen
Germany
90% fear manipulation, the majority of them being heavily manipulated.
Thus many of those 80% wanting future governments to address internet desinformation will loudly cheer when they actually try to ban things like those evil leftist fact checks.
Seriously… 55%+ right now (that’s not far from a ⅔ majority in seats) are planning to vote for people openly telling lies and fairy tales, yet they question if people are manipulated but not at all their own delusions.
Nice to see the US get its due recognition among peers in the headline.
Well the good news is that the United States interference and the Russian interference it’s basically the same so you know maybe a little bit easier?
Israel never getting the credit they deserve.
Best friends with Axel Springer, good friends with Elon Musk…
Heck, the Bild recently attacked the protests against rising fascism as “antisemitic” because the zionist provocateur and FDP politician Karoline Preisler felt unwelcome at one protest.
In the name of “protecting Jewish life” the Bundestag passed two resolutions attacking culture, science and education, demanding people who voice criticism of Israel to be purged from any government funded positions. Of course this was hailed by the Fascists of the AfD. This also violates core principals of the German constitution.
Critics, in particular Jewish critics of these resolutions were completely ignored and it remains unknown to the public, who, how and when these resolutions were negotiated. The complete lack of transparency and the support from supposedly progressive parties like Greens and SPD to the now far right CDU and FDP to the AfD fascists does raise the question, how this almagation of support came together. The AfD seemed not to be directly involved in the negotiations of the resolutions, but the methods and targets are perfect for them.
Universities are the least antisemitic spaces in German society, yet they have bern targeted extensively by people claiming to “fight antisemitism”
I’ve almost never seen polls that high before
Welcome to the fucking club
Unless germany has transitioned to electronic voting since their last election I wouldn’t worry. Last i heard the german court struck down attempts to transition away from paper ballots using the idea that electronic voting is unconstitutional due to the fact that it is impossible to distinguish legitimate results from fraudulent ones. It would be great if we could adopt that type of election transparency in the usa.
It was the CCC who argued that electronic votes can’t be secured to the necessary degree (which involves not being able to prove that you voted a certain way), the constitutional court listened attentively, then more or less said “that’s all way too complicated, an ordinary citizen with basic education and no specialised knowledge must be able to ascertain for themselves that the elections are kosher, therefore, electronic voting is out”.
You are correct. In laymens terms the constitutional court of germany sided with the two citizens challenging the use of electronic/digital voting machines with the thought that it is inpossible to differentiate between legitimate and fraudulent results unless a technology is presented where the votes cast can be verified as legitimate instead of being obfuscated by ghe technology of the devices themselves and requiring technical experts to translate the outcome and mechanisms of the technology.
Here is the basic text summarizing their decision.
“all essential steps of an election are subject to the possibility of public scrutiny unless other constitutional interests justify an exception . . . The use of voting machines which electronically record the voters’ votes and electronically ascertain the election result only meets the constitutional requirements if the essential steps of the voting and of the ascertainment of the result can be examined reliably and without any specialist knowledge of the subject . . . The very wide-reaching effect of possible errors of the voting machines or of deliberate electoral fraud make special precautions necessary in order to safeguard the principle of the public nature of elections.”
they didn’t say that electronic votes are all fraudulent, obviously (not that this is what anyone is saying here) but rather that the technology itself is subject to manipulation by those who control the technology and know how to manipulate it or even that errors could change the results and ultimately this undermines constituent’s rights to fair elections in the age of technocratic oligarchy and multinational corporate corruption/ interference.
That being said there are obviously other ways to manipulate elections outside of the ballot counting itself such as gerrymandering, mis/disinformation and even political violence to name several but at least the german election system seems to be protected from outright manipulation of votes via obfuscated technological / programed software mechanisms
Gerrymandering is unknown over here, we do have personalised elections but that only influences who specifically of a party gets into parliament, not the percentages the different parties get. Voter intimidation would cause an absolute clusterfuck and the courts would probably invalidate the vote, mis/disinformation well we’ve had that since forever it’s politics as usual. The Bild hasn’t changed. Things like ballot stuffing are completely unheard of, there’s too many eyes on everything, it’s very common to see local party people as election observers, and with that I mean quite literally every party, also the local municipal one which doesn’t even run on the state/federal level. It’s a ritual.
Fun fact: You generally don’t lose your right to vote when being committed of a crime, only the right to assume office, for some time, even for murder etc. Exception: Political crimes like high treason and, now that’s poetic justice, electoral fraud.
You do realize this article is about targeted political campaigns rather than straight-up vote manipulation, right?
Regardless i dont see how that makes my comment any less valid. Those with massive wealth use their money to support these campaigns and present an image of strong support within the population although this isnt truly the case however they dont care because they want to manipulate the narrative to manufacture consent. This wont work in Germany with their election laws. Also Germany has much better education standards than the usa so a good percentage of the population will outright reject blatant fascism.
I think it’s adorable that they think the US is capable enough to be included in this list.
Guys, I really appreciate that you included us, but we have both of our legs in one trouser-hole right now and we’re going to be stuck there for at least the next hour. We don’t have time to go to your house and mess with your stuff. I’m just flattered you wanted to acknowledge our efforts, thanks guys.
Musk is already openly interfering and backing the afd on behalf of the new government he’s taken over (E: never mind zuck and whatever Cambridge Analytica bullshit he wants to pull again with meta, as well as plenty other American media owners and capitalists, without a doubt), wtf are you talking about?
Oh, fair point. I don’t think of Musk as American in any sense, but he’s definitely interfering in their election and they would look at him as American, since I guess technically he’s our fault at this point.
I don’t think of Musk as American in any sense
He’s basically co-president now, if anything he’s making more decisions than Trump who just signs stuff the P2025 people give him.
Uhm… I guess you forgot the endorsement by Muskrat for the AfD not just by tweeting endorsements left and right, or giving Weidel a live interview on his plattform but also an appearence at their rally (seen as the cover image). The Muskrat that shows severe signs of white supremacy and facism.
He literally manipulated the elections.
Both legs in one trouser hole and our head so far up our own ass that it’s not even alarming anymore, it’s just extremely impressive
