Russian bots flooded the social network X with misinformation of only a few days before German elections, the German government’s report in which the inspection had polito.
The focus is allegedly doppelgänger, which in translation means “double”, the surgery supported by Kremlin, according to the German Office for Foreign Affairs. The campaign uses false newspaper sites, the so-called “sleeping” (accounts and pages that do not publish anything and suddenly start the posts) and content generated in artificial intelligence to spread false narratives and understood trust in Western institutions.
Intelligence agencies across the EU and the United States have already accompanied well-coordinated doppelgänger tactics that have tried to support Ukraine in the war against Russia and amplifying the Pro-Said messages. Now the operation is redirected to German elections held on 23. February.
German officials identified more than 100 pseudo-newsponies that accumulate the content in silence for several months, according to official sources.
“These platforms are structured similarly, filled with generic, often AI-generated articles,” said one policy official, under the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic. “At the chosen moment, a fictional story that spreads rapidly through social networks and influencers. We must assume that these sites were prepared for activation ahead of the Bundestag elections.”
These “sleeping” pages imitate legitimate media houses and remain inactive until a politically sensitive moment comes, such as choices, when they start to publish false stories that are rapidly widening coordinated networks on social networks.
In recent years, the European authorities accused Moscow to mix in a number of elections. The Czech Republic and Belgian authorities have broken the large network of influence for which they were expanding the Propaganda before the elections for the European Parliament last year, and Romanian presidential elections were canceled after the security services were initiated by Russia to initiate aggressive hybrid attacks.
This issue is particularly sensitive in German elections, where the Pro-Radiestrian party alternatives for Germany (AFD), which is loudly supported by Elon MUSK, occupies second place according to surveys.
The report in which politico had insight, writes, shows a sudden increase in publication with false accounts, with activities that exceeded three thousand publications in the day at the end of January.
During the larger part of November and December, the activity was relatively low, rarely crossed 50 announcements a day. However, in early January, coordinated publication disinformation began to appear in much greater frequency.
This technique, which social networks flood the rapid waves of publication with the aim of creating the illusion of viral popularity, is characteristic of Russian misinformation campaigns.
The content of the posts also follows a clear scheme. Many announcements target German support Ukraine, claiming that Berlin puts Kiev in front of his own citizens. One example, documented in the report, describes the invented corruption scandal, which includes the Minister of Robert Habecki and an unnamed “Ukrainian Minister of Ukraine”.
A false story is set to “sleep” page at the end of the egg, and then within a few hours increased by coordinated accounts on XU, generating hundreds of sharing in minutes.
(Vijesti.ba)
