Summary

A poll found that 88% of German voters fear foreign election interference, with Russia (45%), the US (42%), and China (26%) seen as top threats.

Concerns include deepfake disinformation and social media manipulation, with 56% believing Germany is unprepared. Elon Musk, a vocal far-right supporter, has drawn criticism for allegedly influencing German politics.

Voters also worry about the far-right AfD’s aggressive online campaigns. Many (79%) believe populists benefit most from social media.

Meanwhile, 71% support creating a new ministry to combat digital misinformation.

  • takeheart@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    According to the study 37% of participants verify information before sharing it on social media.

    There you have it folks.

    Disinformation campaigns don’t need to be super convincing with the latest tech or elaborate fake outs, although it certainly helps. For the masses (ie election interference) it’s easy enough to to establish narratives, vibes by users simply sharing headlines to fake or manipulative reports. The people that bother to deep check and cross reference sources you typically couldn’t convince anyway. Sadly enough, most users never read beyond the head lines (75% this Facebook study estimates).

    Think of your own feed: how many head lines // posts do you just scroll by w/out ever opening them? Even if you don’t share actively it still can influence the your perception of the world today and shape your mood.

    Social media is eating away at the fundamentals of Democracy 🫠, change my mind!

    • hperrin@lemmy.ca
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      7 hours ago

      I think part of the problem is how awful an experience it is to read articles on most websites. I get that they need advertising revenue, but the giant ads plastered all over the articles make the experience of reading them simply awful.