“Everyone is exposed to fake news at least once a day.” It’s early morning at the Grafinger Gymnasium. About 60 twelfth graders sit in the small canteen and look at Kai Buchtal. He is standing on a small stage with a Power Point presentation glowing behind him. #Fact or Fake? it’s there on the wall. It is the beginning of a simulation game by the European Commission. For one morning, 120 students from the Max-Mannheimer Gymnasium Grafing immerse themselves in the roles of Members of the European Parliament. Since the number of young people clearly exceeds the scope of a game, two runs run in parallel. Together they are trying to find a compromise to protect EU citizens from fake news and hate speech without disproportionately restricting freedom on the internet.
What is so-called fake news and what is hate speech? asks Kai Buchtal and looks around. A student raises his hand and explains that fake news is news that looks like news, but the content is not true. Hate speech is about inappropriately attacking people and/or groups on the internet.
How does EU politics work?
“The Internet is developing rapidly and offers more and more positive – but also negative possibilities,” says Kai Buchtal. He is a freelancer for “Planpolitik”, a company that specializes in political simulation games. Easier access to high-quality information via the Internet has had a positive effect on democratic processes and social discourse. At the same time, social media could be used to spread false and misleading information, according to the information sheet that “Planpolitik” has drawn up together with the European Commission. The legislature would find it difficult to keep up with the pace of developments on the Internet, says Buchtal. However, before young people can work interactively on a draft law on hate speech and disinformation on social platforms in the EU, the groundwork needs to be laid. Kai Bruchtal and colleague Saskia Sterzl have prepared a presentation for this and explain to the young people what EU politics means and how the various institutions are connected.
Kai Buchtal and Saskia Sterzl from “Planpolitik” guide the young people through the simulation game.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
What can you do yourself against the spread of disinformation? How can false reports and hate speech in the EU be dealt with together? These and other questions are discussed by the students. At the same time, the participants get to know the EU institutions and how they work or deepen their knowledge of the European Union. In order to learn more, the young people are divided into different factions. A leaflet gives them information about whose role they are taking on in the simulation game and what job the person has in the EU Parliament.
The students learn to deal with unfamiliar perspectives
“That’s not my political line at all,” says student Antonia Thewalt. In the game, the 17-year-old is supposed to stand up for the interests of the liberals, whereas in her free time she actually campaigns as a spokeswoman for the interests of the Green Youth in the Ebersberg district. Despite or perhaps because of the unfamiliar perspective, it is interesting to discuss within the faction in the planning game, she says.
Antonia Thewalt adopts an unusual perspective for her.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
For school colleague Lorenz Weidner, this is the second business game he is taking part in. To actively experience and learn what it means to do politics is something special for him. In the role-playing game, he too was assigned to a party with which he does not identify himself. While he sees himself politically more to the left, in the simulation game he now represents the arguments of the European People’s Party, which is considered a more bourgeois and conservative center-right group in the European Parliament, in which the German members of the CDU/CSU are also organized.
In the simulation game, Lorenz Weidner campaigns for the interests of the European People’s Party.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
“Very few know how important the European Union is,” says Margot Klinger. She is a teacher and subject supervisor for social studies and brought the business game to schools for the first time three years ago. Back then, the 12th graders learned how the EU works using the example of energy policy. For the social studies teacher, it is important that her students learn as early as possible and as much as possible about how the EU institutions work. “It’s often an abstract structure – with a simulation game like this, the young people can find a playful approach to the topic,” says Margot Klinger.
Teacher Margot Klinger criticizes the fact that the European Union appears very late in the curriculum.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
Helped with the organization and implementation of the business game #Fakt oder Fake? Ana-Maria Nagl from the representation of the European Commission in Munich. Together with the company “Planpolitik” she developed the gameplay. “This interactive discussion makes politics tangible,” she says. Dealing with hate speech and false news has gained in relevance with the outbreak of the Ukraine war. This is one of the reasons why the Internet must be regulated at EU level. “It doesn’t stop at national borders,” says Ana-Maria Nagl.
For Ana-Maria Nagl it is important that the children and young people learn media skills.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
But social media is not only used for propaganda and world politics. In schools, too, one comes into contact with the threats, for example in social media, says Margot Klinger. Accordingly, from time to time students of the Max Mannheimer Gymnasium are victims of online insults. An experience that the children and young people not only have to have in school, but also in their free time. For example, one student reported being the victim of hate speech while playing an online game. Since the school wants to counteract these experiences and wants to sensitize the pupils to dealing with the Internet, a media program has now been set up at the school, explains Margot Klinger.
Since there is still no law to curb hate speech and disinformation on social platforms in the EU, it is important that children and young people also learn media skills at school. At least in the planning game, the Grafingen schoolchildren finally agree on a law that, despite a long discussion, is passed unanimously by the participants. “Politics doesn’t work without compromise,” says Lorenz, and the young people show politicians how they at least manage to overcome ideological divides.