Experts, commissioned by the German Foreign Ministry, used specialized software to check messages published on the online platform X (formerly Twitter) between December 20 and January 20, writes ‘Der Spiegel’.
They reportedly came across more than 50,000 fake user accounts, which together published more than a million messages in German on X. “A barrage of lies,” describes Der Spiegel, which based its conclusions on extracts from the investigation. One of the recurring themes of the reports was the accusation that the government of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz neglected the people of his country to to help Ukraine in the war against Russia, according to ‘Der Spiegel’.
According to the weekly, the accounts also often referred to fake news on websites that were designed to resemble those of real media outlets.
Experts believe their discovery is part of the “Doppelgänger” disinformation campaign, which is blamed on Russia as part of its hybrid war against the West and is well known to authorities. This ‘Doppelgänger’ operation, which came to light in 2022, involves taking over the visual identity of media outlets to spread false information.