Massive increase and professionalization of disinformation campaigns: Transparency is the best antidote
Germany continues to experience a wave of coordinated disinformation activities – primarily by Russian actors. With the advancing digitalization, the influence of these actors, which can be summarized under the term Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI), is also increasing. This is the finding of the recent report “Disinformation Landscape Germany.” The publisher is DisinfoLab, an independent, non-profit organization headquartered in Brussels that specializes in researching, analyzing, and combating disinformation in Europe.
According to the report, the doppelganger campaign and actual acts of sabotage in the election environment in particular demonstrate the hybrid nature of the attacks, which go far beyond fake news. The goal remains the division of democratic societies, the stoking of mistrust, and the targeted subversion of democratic processes, intensified in the context of the war of aggression against Ukraine and political polarization. The attacks are particularly effective when their effect is multiplied by the amplification effects of social networks – in some cases, they are even deliberately flanked by social media campaigns.
Case studies: Doppelgänger and sabotage campaign against the Green Party
In the run-up to the 2025 federal election, an orchestrated Russian sabotage campaign was uncovered, in which cars were damaged and fake “climate” stickers were used to discredit climate activists and Green Party supporters. Only after police arrests were the Russian background revealed. Modern deepfakes and AI-assisted campaigns against leading candidates also dominated the election campaign.
In a doppelganger campaign, manipulators used fake media sites (e.g., replicas of the websites of “Spiegel” and “Bild”) that specifically promoted anti-Ukrainian and pro-Russian narratives. These fakes were then widely disseminated on platforms like X and Meta through algorithmic amplification and targeted advertising.
Fake news is also being deliberately spread on topics such as climate change, migration, vaccinations, and democratic institutions. The actors’ goal is not to create space for a potentially underrepresented spectrum of opinion within democratic discourse. Rather, it is to destabilize democratic societies by stirring up uncertainty, fear, and mistrust among the population.
The rise of the AfD is also increasingly intertwined with disinformation strategies. Russian actors demonstrably supported this development, as leaked documents from the Russian Social Design Agency show, the report states.
How can a democratic society protect itself against such attacks?
Democracies like Germany are addressing the growing problem of disinformation and information manipulation through a comprehensive suite of technical, social, and legal measures. These address multiple levels – from legislation to monitoring and fact-checking to strengthening civil society.
Since February 2024, Germany has been implementing, among other things, the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires platforms to combat disinformation and ensure better moderation and greater transparency of content. The Federal Network Agency acts as Digital Services Coordinator and monitors compliance. The section on incitement to hatred, in particular, is used to prosecute targeted hate campaigns, anti-Semitic, and criminal disinformation. Holocaust denial also falls under this category.
But fact checkers and independent research organizations and media initiatives such as the German-Austrian Digital Media Observatory also play an important role in uncovering manipulation and attacks on society and making the massive spread of disinformation with the help of social media transparent.
As a relatively new initiative, “AI for Democracy” is not yet listed in this report. However, the examples and approaches presented demonstrate the importance of identifying activities and campaigns early on that dishonestly manipulate public discourse.
AI for Democracy focuses on systematically identifying right-wing populist and right-wing extremist actors and disinformation campaigns using AI technology and monitoring social networks and news portals, providing topic and source analyses, and creating transparency about dissemination channels. With regularly updated reports and analyses, the non-partisan initiative strengthens democratic discourse and offers sound support to institutions, civil society, and the media.