In the fight against targeted false reports and conspiracy stories, Hesse’s state government is providing around 640,000 euros for the development of an Internet portal. The platform “Der Fabulant” will be the focus of the “Hessian prevention network against conspiracy stories and disinformation set up in May 2022,” said Interior Minister Peter Beuth (CDU) in Wiesbaden at the start of the traditional autumn talks of the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
On Tuesday evening, experts discussed in Wiesbaden under the motto “Attack on the Truth” how disinformation endangers free democracy.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, the portal “Der Fabulant” is aimed at a broad public. Informative and humorous articles are intended to educate about rampant conspiracy stories. The sponsors of the portal are therefore the civil society extremism prevention experts from the organization “modus zad”.
“In light of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, we are seeing that disinformation campaigns are spreading at breakneck speed, especially in the so-called social media,” explained Beuth. “Fake news is not only spread in autocracies to cover up wars of aggression against sovereign neighbors as “special military operations”.
In Germany, too, false reports are being spread by extremists, for example, in order to create a mood – mostly against democratic values. Autocrats are interested in portraying democracies as divided and weak, said Beuth.
False reports about the war mixed with different conspiracy stories about the corona pandemic, for example, as Beuth explained. “Behind the targeted fake news, an uncomfortable mix of pro-Russian actors, extremists, Reich citizens, corona deniers and conspiracy theorists has formed.” It is important that the security authorities keep an eye on these disinformation campaigns and expose them as lies.
Mode zad communication Ministry of Interior
