Fake news - a term that perhaps not everyone was familiar with until the 2016 presidential election - has burned its way into the heart of society since the beginning of the corona pandemic. At that time, Donald Trump loudly described reputable media as lying press and spreaders of fake news, and trust in journalistic work increasingly fell. Fake news is now taking on a significant role, which has hardly any measurable consequences for the formation of society's opinion.
When I realized that a lot of misinformation had already taken root in my environment, I started to deal with this topic. Tried to debunk fake news, share insights and find ways to combat it. At that point, I was not yet aware of the impact disinformation has on society. Before I began to delve deeper into the topic of the risks and dangers of fake news for the next step, I thought that they should be viewed as stand-alone and independent of other disinformation phenomena. Now I understand fake news as a breeding ground for social injustices and misunderstandings.
Fake news can be used as a tool to change political opinion by spreading party-strengthening or party-damaging disinformation. As early as 2018, targeted social media manipulation campaigns were detected in over 70 countries around the world. Among other things, in both the 2019 European elections and the Brexit election, there were attempts to manipulate the election results with the targeted distribution of digital propaganda and false information. There is therefore no question that misinformation can influence fundamental political and social decisions through targeted manipulation and thus become a fundamental threat to democracy.
Companies and their products, organizations and clubs, as well as private individuals can also fall victim to disinformation campaigns with unforeseen consequences.
Fake news spreads like a virus and it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish such news from real, legitimate posts. Even though there are many platforms dedicated to the fight against disinformation, such as Mimikama, it is very difficult to convince people who have already responded to dubious posts and perceive them at face value otherwise. Unlike a hard drive, the human mind is unable to clean or delete information once stored in long-term memory, even if that information has already been proven to be false. This is called the continued influence effect.
But it is not just democracy that is threatened by the spread of disinformation. Especially in today's world, which is characterized by the corona pandemic, doctors and scientists are the target of disinformation campaigns, malicious insinuations that question their working methods and portrayed as ridiculous and unbelievable via social media. Alternative medical treatment methods are coming to the fore and are captivating more and more people.
By spreading disinformation, such self-proclaimed alternative doctors benefit by demonizing conventional medicine and thus putting their followers in serious danger. Until his death, a German doctor, Ryke Geerd Hamer, propagated the “Germanic New Medicine” treatment method he invented in 1981, which was demonstrably medically ineffective and associated with considerable risks and dangers. Now also known as “new medicine” or “biological medicine”. This method is based solely on the body's ability to heal itself by resolving mental conflicts and renounces any conventional medical treatment methods. By 1995, over 80 deaths in Germany and Austria were due to his treatment. When he was arrested, he claimed that Jewish lodges were influencing professors and journalists to carry out an “unprecedented knowledge suppression campaign” against his methods.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the impact disinformation has on medicine and science has once again become apparent. Various experts are called liars and the virus, which has been robbing us of the air we can breathe for two years now, is denied.
Now representatives of these treatment methods are increasingly coming to the fore again and are speaking out with other doctors from various specialist areas against the effectiveness of the vaccination and the currently applicable measures. The MFG party - People Freedom Fundamental Rights - which developed with the pandemic, recently sent the Ministry of Health a letter with over 200 signatures from doctors and experts who united against the measures to combat the virus. Among other things, this letter includes signatures from gynecologists, dentists and ophthalmologists. The fact that not every doctor, just because he has completed a medical degree, has the skills to comment on an illness that does not correspond to his area of expertise or to assess its dangers remains unnoticed by those opposed to the measures and Corona deniers. They feel supported in their convictions and supported and supported by a party that does not shy away from spreading fake news and referring to information that is spread and controlled by right-wing groups.
Other politicians are also taking advantage of their opportunities and turning against the government, calling on supporters to demonstrate and largely offering advice on how to alleviate the symptoms or fight the disease with the help of questionable veterinary preparations. As representatives of the people, politicians are perceived by society as people with a look behind the scenes. It is particularly dangerous when they label reputable media as lying press and accuse them of covering up or adjusting the truth on orders from the top of the government.
While researching the dangers of fake news, I came across the book “Radicalization Machines” by Julia Ebner. For her research, she goes undercover to join right-wing extremist groups, which successfully network with each other via social media. It becomes clear how important the use of false information and its spread is for recruiting new members and strengthening dominant ideologies. Even before the pandemic, there were reports about the refugees who were denounced by these organizations as invaders and destroyers of culture. Now it's more about exposing the "mainstream media" as a lying press with all available means, making disparaging comments towards scientists and experts and looking for the one culprit who is profiting from all the misery. In this way, the anger of like-minded people is polarized, channeled and loudly called for the resignation of the entire government in order to reshape democracy and enable the implementation of their ideologies.
Just a short excursion into certain groups that are present on social media clearly shows how much anger has built up against politics and those in favor of measures. Insults are the order of the day and commentators are actively supported. In the meantime, tempers have become so heated that these groups no longer shy away from calling on members to demonstrate demonstratively in front of the private homes of local and state politicians, and calls to move demonstrations to the gates of reputable media companies in order to bring the lying press to its knees force, are occasionally the order of the day. The contribution that social bots make to this goes unnoticed by many. These computer-controlled social media accounts respond to, share, and comment on specific posts in seconds, reinforcing real users' sense of being part of a large, like-minded community. Although Facebook offers the option of reporting accounts as “fake accounts”, such reports are usually unsuccessful. Verification of the account is not necessary on many platforms and offers bots a large platform to support and control the opinions of other users and to heat up the fire of anger that burns in the minds of many users so that they no longer shy away from it , to express oneself as violent on social media and, in the worst case, even outside of it. Right-wing radical groups have become very popular in recent years and are consciously using social media and the opportunity to spread fake news on a large scale to organize, form and recruit new members.
In the documentary “Conspiracy Worlds”, Andre Wolf, from the fact-checking platform Mimikama, shows the 5 escalation levels of the radicalization process:
1. Escalation level: Simple hoax
The spread of disinformation on relevant topics and the forwarding of chain letters meant that people soon became unsettled and could no longer distinguish between what was true and what was not.
2nd escalation level: Manipulative reporting
The emergence of alternative information networks and the spread of fake news occur with the intention of influencing the opinion of wider society.
3rd Escalation Level: Myth Creation
The goal of this escalation level is to destabilize existing systems.
4th escalation level: use of force
Radicalization is progressing to such an extent that the willingness to use violence in society is continually increasing.
5th escalation level: civil war
(Another purely hypothetical model)
At this point in time, people are so radicalized due to the previous stages that there are riots in and against society and a system change.
Even though conspiracy theories and fake news are two different phenomena, the line between them is becoming very blurred. Disinformation can support existing conspiracy myths and can also contribute to the emergence of new theories. Disinformation from dubious sources is readily spread by supporters of the conspiracy scene and seems particularly open to propagandistic messages.
Many small pieces of disinformation thicken like individual snowballs, increasing in volume with each false piece of information and thus attracting the attention of even the last, perhaps still unsure, readers.
And yet there is still someone who benefits from all these dangers, namely the platform in which these groups are formed. In the recently published Facebook Papers, whistleblower Frances Haugen explains how Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Co, despite knowing the dangers that the spread of fake news poses, do not want to change anything out of greed for profit. Frances shows that the algorithms are trained to display the most radical content in the user's news feed among all the entries on a topic.
She gives the example of a young girl who is interested in healthy eating and ultimately ends up on the site that promotes or even demands the anorexia of young girls and women, even leading to anorexia. Although they are aware of the risks and dangers that these networks give space and time to grow, they are not willing to minimize their profits for the benefit of others. The more extreme the message, the higher the reach, the higher the clicks, the higher the profit, the higher the danger for each individual. No matter whether inside or outside of social media.
Sources:
– https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryke_Geerd_Hamer#Antisemitismus_und_Verschw%C3%B6rungstheorien – Germanic New Medicine, Ryke Geerd Hamer
– https://tv.orf.at/program/orf1/verschwoer106.html – Conspiracy Worlds 2/ 3
– “Radicalization machines” – Julia Ebner
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws06adOKNUk – Jan Böhmermann in an interview with Frances Haugen
Related to the topic: What is fake news?
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

