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Germany: 90% of voters fear manipulation by foreign actors ahead of election on February 23 - Russia, U.S., China perceived top threats (www.dw.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

Everyone who has even been in an abusive relationship will tell you it's one thing to recognize being manipulated. It's a whole other thing to act properly on it.