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..the German Interior Ministry has proposed the creation of a "Center of Defense Against Disinformation," ... The Federal Press Office in the Chancellery is slated to take the lead in creating the defense center.
The press office, headed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, has over 500 employees...
Stories that appeared to be news but were actually made-up partisan propaganda were shared in huge numbers on social media before the US elections. The majority of those articles worked against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton who lost to Republican Donald Trump...
Intelligence agencies and politicians in Germany are hoping to prevent a similar scenario next fall for the Bundestag elections...
When you are losing and in power, what better sense is it than to marshal the tax-payer funded human resources and institutions of the State to aid your campaign?
It doesn't help their positioning that it is ironically founded on the 'fake news' that the Clinton email leaks were a hack rather than the result of an insider leak.
This will backfire on them in that few outside of Merkel's camp will see this as anything but a measure of autocracy.
For the purpose of the upcoming election, and given the perception of her by the greater world, she's the current reigning Queen and torch bearer of Western liberalism. Like it or not.
As her new Ministry of Truth might comment: perception is reality.
99% of the electorate would not know what a corporatist was, nor would they likely be truly interested in any semantic distinction (that may only serve to distance liberals from her who wish to survive politically).
As of now, in terms of the primary issues on the table for the upcoming election, there is no distinction between whatever you are saying that Merkel actually is and the positions of other truly significant Western liberals.
For the purpose of the upcoming election, and given the perception of her by the greater world, she's the current reigning Queen and torch bearer of Western liberalism. Like it or not.
You can't get rid of your relatives by claiming they aren't yours.
I'm Germany. I'm surely not a leftist. I'm really concerned about those fake news. I hate it when people or even foreign countries are spreading misinformation. There are way too many dumb people that will believe even the most silly fake news. Of course it's necessary to fight against the spreading of fake news. The media in Germany is quite reliable and government-critical, especially the state-funded. They don't spread fake news. I'm quite concerned that more and more people are unable to distinguish between real news and fake news.
It's not acceptable when for example Russia spreads fake news to influence the public opinion in Germany.
Germany isn't in danger that an extremist party or extremist politician like Trump will seize power, but it's not ok if extremists will become more influential only by deluding the public.
People abusing their power as an elected official to secure reelection. Imagine the outrage if Trump did this.
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