An alleged tweet from Ralf Stegner about pedophiles and right-wing populists is circulating on social media.

In a tweet, Stegner allegedly wrote that he would rather drink beer with a pedophile than shake hands with a right-wing populist.

This is said to be a tweet from Stegner from 2016.
However, the screenshot was faked and distributed by a right-wing populist site.

Allegedly, the long-time former chairman of the SPD Schleswig-Holstein Ralf Stegner wrote a tweet with the following wording:

The alleged tweet from Stegner
The alleged tweet from Stegner

“It’s better to have a beer with a pedophile than to shake the hand of a right-wing populist.”

According to the screenshot, he is said to have written this on Twitter at 12:33 a.m. May 8, 2016 32 times and received 34 likes.

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Looking for the tweet

What is noticeable on all the screenshots, which sometimes have better, sometimes worse quality, is that the abbreviation “pb” can be seen on each of them. This shows that there is only one source for the screenshot, meaning that no one else also took a screenshot of the tweet.

What does pb stand for?

This is an account called “Political Picture Sayings” on Telegram , the description of the account is:

“All political slogans on pictures
... Be careful, they may contain traces of truth.
Don’t
believe anything, check for yourself!”

“pb” shared the fake tweet
“pb” shared the fake tweet

On February 17, 2020, “Political Picture Sayings” posted the fake tweet for the first time on Telegram.
On February 18, 2020, it was further distributed by “ Volksbetrugpunktnet ,” but without a hint of satire.

And what did Ralf Stegner really tweet?

The original tweet still caused a stir, so much so that the AfD Hamburg even a criminal complaint against Stegner .
Namely, he tweeted:

“The fact remains that you have to attack the positions and personnel of the right-wing populists because they are outdated, intolerant, right-wing and dangerous.”

PI-News were also upset about this before it was edited by “Political Picture Sayings”.

Image source: PI News, emphasis ours
Image source: PI News , emphasis ours

Here's the real tweet again, which of course now has more retweets and likes:

Note: The reason why the screenshot says 12:33 a.m. but the original tweet is from 8:33 a.m. is primarily due to the time setting of the user who took the screenshot. But as you can see from the screenshot from “PI-News”, it is exactly the same tweet.

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Conclusion

The real tweet already caused a stir among AfD members in 2016, who felt they were being described as right-wing populists and were being attacked.
The fake version of the tweet from “Politische Bildrechte”, which was posted a day later by “Volksbetrugpunktnet”, is now the version that is widely shared and incorrectly viewed as real.


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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 )