Chancellor candidate Laschet: Between satire and hoax

As a candidate for chancellor, Armin Laschet is in the focus of public interest. Political opponents target him with a satirical campaign – but there are also real fake news attacks.

Climate protection, yes, but not at any price. Taxes not up, but not down either. Among other things that ARD summer interview has shown: Union chancellor candidate Armin Laschet obviously does not want to offend. He also avoids a clear word to the whispering of ex-Constitutional Protection President Hans-Georg Maaßen about character tests for journalists.

Critics therefore accuse Laschet of arbitrariness. This attitude is now to be targeted with a satirical campaign: the so-called Lasch-O-Mat is a random number generator based on quotation modules that Laschet published on Twitter and other media. The Lasch-O-Mat generates an alleged quote from the CDU politician from three such text modules and a freely selectable term. For example, if you enter the term “waste glass”, the page returns as a result:

A marketing company from Mainz is behind the project. The managing directors are close to the FDP, reports the “Berliner Morgenmpost”: Linus Junginger was managing director of the FDP city council group until 2018, his colleague Michael Ziegler is a public relations officer at the FDP in the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament. The FDP is also listed as a customer on the company website.

However, the format was not created for a client. “We have personal and business relationships with political parties, but the Lasch-O-Mat is our own creation,” said Junginger when asked by the newspaper.

To be recognized as satire

“Random quotes that could have come from Armin Laschet” – so it says on the page: The Lasch-O-Mat can be clearly recognized as a satirical action – and therefore no disinformation. However, satire can also – consciously or unconsciously – be misunderstood and become the basis for false reports.

A satirical online site reported that the Greens politician Claudia Roth had called for an alcohol ban in Germany during Ramadan. A fictitious story that caused a storm of outrage.

The scientist Anna Wagner explained in an interview with the ARD fact finderthat satire mostly works when it is presented in an appropriate framework – and is thus recognizable. In addition, the use of humor and rhetorical-artistic means such as distortion, exaggeration or irony are typical. But there is no uniform definition.

Fake news about donations

In contrast to recognizable satire, targeted false reports have the aim of leaving the addressees in the dark as to whether a message is true or fictitious. They are supposed to confuse and sow doubt. The actual message is often not expressed openly at all, but indicated by a question. For example in the case of social media posts about donations to the “Aktion Lichtblicke”, which allegedly flow into Armin Laschet’s election campaign.

In numerous posts on Telegram and Facebook it is said that so far not a cent of the 6.6 million euros has reached the flood victims. And: “Have you ever wondered where the money for Armin Laschet’s election campaign comes from?” And further: the patroness of the campaign is “by chance” the wife of Armin Laschet. “To ask?”

Without any receipt

The claim that the donations will be used for the election campaign is not openly expressed, but it is conveyed as a message. Only the fact that Susanne Laschet, wife of Armin Laschet, has taken over the patronage for this project – as the wives / husbands of prime ministers had also done before – serves as supposed evidence.

The Lichtblicke campaign saw itself in the face of these allegations, which are spread without any evidence Opinion required, in which the allegations are clearly rejected. To this day, there are numerous pictures and messages on Facebook and Telegram in which the false report is spread more widely.

From Telegram to the big networks

The misinformation about Laschet and the donation money was spread by celebrities Xavier Naidoo and Mustafa Alin on Telegram and Facebook. Experts from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) believe that the spread of false information was largely limited to the milieu of “lateral thinking” and other supporters of conspiracies.

But the example shows “how easily content from right-wing and conspiracy-theoretical Telegram channels find its way into popular social networks such as Facebook and Twitter”. Particularly perfidious: The operator of such a Telegram channel, which spread the false report, is calling for donations for the flood victims himself – via his PayPal account, which, according to the ISD, has now been restricted.