A video on YouTube alleging anti-vaccine conspiracy theories in Germany was viewed more than a million times. A Facebook post promoting a local far-right political party was shared by tens of thousands of people. A Twitter message attacking a leading politician ahead of the country's upcoming election was liked repeatedly over months.
Thousands of social media posts like these are spreading through Europe's largest economy, and they all come from RT Deutsch, the Kremlin-backed media outlet.
In total, the Russian broadcaster — whose aim is to provide an alternative to the Western media's perspective on current affairs and promote Russian President Vladimir Putin's strategic interests — has become the most prominent media outlet on social media in Germany just weeks ahead of the country's federal election on September 26.
Since March, RT Deutsch has focused on promoting anti-vaccine fears around the COVID-19 pandemic and championing the far-right Alternative for Deutschland (AfD). Its efforts, collectively, have racked up roughly 22.7 million interactions on Facebook in the form of comments, likes and shares, according to research from the German Marshall Fund (GMF) of the United States, a Washington-based think tank.
Those figures place the Kremlin-backed media organization at the top of the social media leader board compared to mainstream German publishers like Bild, the national tabloid owned by Axel Springer (which is also co-owner of POLITICO) and Deutsche Welle, the...
Read Full Story: https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-russia-social-media-distrust-election-vladimir-putin/
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