True wave? True whirlwind!

Serious faces, big promises, unenlightened origins: Germany's first “really enlightened” online TV channel is supposedly launching on June 25th.

Update: see our article “True Wave –> True Enlightenment!”

Unfortunately, not much clarification has been done so far, because the fairly broad social media campaign leaves it completely open as to who is behind this new (according to its own statements) online TV station. Since we always recommend that you first check who the owner/author/responsible person is when it comes to third-party content, there is a problem here.

We discuss: Since June 21, 2018, a Facebook page called “wahrewelle.tv” has been conducting massive self-promotion and indicates a start date of June 25, 2018. What is special about this type of self-promotion is the special framing in the announcements using terms such as “uncensored” and “compulsory fees”, as well as the fairly frequent use of the terms “truth” and “enlightened”

True Wave TV is the world's first independent 24-hour online channel. News, reports, series and feature films await you here, guaranteed uncensored and free of mandatory fees.

Independent, ruthless, critical – that is Wahrewelle.TV

A related website and an email contact are listed on the Facebook page, but there are no names of those responsible. The situation is very similar on the website, as there is no information about the operators/operators here either.

A WhoIs information for the domain “wahrewelle.tv” is also unsuccessful; only the information “Private data” is shown as owner data. The domain itself was registered anonymously via Instra.com. If you look at the query for this domain on Instra , you will find out from this information that the domain was already registered on February 27, 2018.

No services yet!

Apart from a trailer and a few full-length images, it is not yet clear what will ultimately be broadcast. However, the people depicted in the pictures are unlikely to be actors for the broadcaster, because a reverse search for the individual pictures showed that these are so-called stock photos, i.e. pictures that can be purchased.

For example, you can find the person depicted in the following sharepic on Gettyimages with the photo credit “Peopleimages”. This picture is part of an entire series in which the man can be seen as a runner ( compare ). Another sharepic, which shows a bearded man with a hat, comes from a pictures in which this man is an angler.

Job advertisement on LinkedIn

A job advertisement on LinkedIn looking for a TV reporter/editor for Wahre Welle TV in Berlin and the surrounding area is also a little irritating. The extent to which this job advertisement really belongs to the website cannot be said 100% without residual risk, but the statements on the website and the Facebook presence are quite consistent with the job description on LinkedIn .

There is also a certain framing in this job description:

Unconfirmed

What remains unconfirmed so far: Allegedly, Wahre Welle TV ran a commercial in selected cinemas, and there is also a corresponding cell phone video circulating on Facebook . At first glance you can't tell exactly which cinema this is, but the status report mentions a "buddy from Dresden". To do this, we would have to write to various cinemas in the region or wait for information from users who know the cinema.

An entry on the indymedia.org platform also claims that there are now also poster advertisements from Wahre Welle TV, but the linked image cannot easily be geographically determined.

In combination with the unknown operator, there is a lot of speculation. Now who is behind it? Who finances the performance? Is it the voice of a party or do operators from the East or West interfere in the German media landscape? We will definitely continue to work on it, but no further results are expected before June 25th.