The flood disaster and a flood of fake news

A voice message alone with a false report about 600 children who died in the flood disaster was viewed 300,000 times. In the fact finder podcast experts explain why there was such a flood of fake news.

The flood disaster in parts of Germany will probably keep people in the affected regions busy for months or even years. More than 150 people lost their lives and the reconstruction will cost many billions of euros. Actually, a record that is terrible enough, but even more dramatic claims are being made on social networks and messenger services.

The police also had to warn against false reports, for example the claim that 600 children had died – and this should be kept secret. In the fact finder podcast of the tagesschau moderator Anja Reschke talks to political scientist Josef Holnburger from the Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy (CeMAS) and fact checker Uschi Jonas from the Correctiv research center about the flood of disinformation about the flood.

Little reliable information

The false information about the allegedly 600 dead children was called up around 300,000 times as a voice message alone, says Holnburger from CeMAS. Because of the widespread distribution, it was probably necessary for the police to get rid of this misinformation.

Fact checker Jonas explains that there is almost always a lot of disinformation about disasters. In the case of the flood disaster, the clarification was particularly difficult because many authorities were overwhelmed by the situation – and so often reliable information was missing. This makes on-site research by journalists all the more important.

media activists traveling

Media activists took advantage of the lack of reliable information: in addition to outright lies about numerous fatalities whose fate was supposed to be kept secret, many unsubstantiated claims circulated that in many regions no aid had been provided at all.

Some media activists streamed online for several hours a day to report in detail on their own activities in the affected regions – and at the same time to complain about the lack of support from institutions. Activists from the “lateral thinking” and Reich citizen milieu were also out and about to spread their messages.

Anja Reschke and Michail Paweletz have been presenting the every two weeks since April fact finder podcast of the tagesschau. All episodes can be found in the ARD media librarybut also on all major platforms that offer podcasts.