Politico Europe reports:
Russian bots have driven a dramatic surge of disinformation on the social media platform X days before Germany’s election, according to a government report seen by POLITICO. At the center of the effort to influence German voters is Doppelgänger, a Kremlin-backed operation, according to the German Office of Foreign Affairs. The campaign uses fake news sites, sleeper accounts, and AI-generated content to spread false narratives and erode trust in Western institutions.
Intelligence agencies across the EU and U.S. have previously tracked Doppelgänger’s highly coordinated tactics, which have sought to undermine support for Ukraine in its war against Russia and amplify Kremlin-friendly messaging. Now, the operation has shifted its focus to Germany’s Feb. 23 election. German officials identified more than 100 pseudo-news websites quietly accumulating content for months, according to officials.
Read the full article. Yesterday Musk and Trump Junior promoted a fake video from the same Kremlin troll farm which claims that USAID paid American celebrities millions to boost the popularity of Zelensky.
As the 2025 #German Federal elections approach there is an increase in amount of Fake AI generated Young Women Influencers advertisement in support of AFD, Trump & Russia
Their target demograph seems to be Male Germans 18-25 who are mostly white, young, working class pic.twitter.com/raYbU9DkIL
— BharatPatriot 🇮🇳🇩🇪🇺🇸🇪🇺 (@BharatPatriot1) February 7, 2025
#FPWorld: As per a report, the Russian campaign uses fake news sites, sleeper accounts, and AI-generated content to spread false narratives and erode trust in Western institutions.https://t.co/1fxbisGLmH
— Firstpost (@firstpost) February 7, 2025
Kremlin-backed disinformation campaign targets German parliamentary elections via hundreds of fake news sites@correctiv_fakt and @NewsGuardRating have linked the sites to “Storm-1516,” a new Russian influence op targeting the Feb. 23 Bundestag election.https://t.co/l6yIgp0bpX
— The Insider (@InsiderEng) January 23, 2025
Putin’s disinformation networks flood social media in bid to skew German election
— Mike Walker (@New_Narrative) February 7, 2025