German elections

[Dill]

(09-25-2017, 09:33 AM)michaelsean Wrote: When do we get to America on this thread?

We get there when individual posters such as yourself raise "America" issues.

Subtitles like "Checks and balances on Trump" and "Lynchpin for economic security" and "Restraining Russian aggression" Don't seem to be about America? 

What do you make of this?

There is meddling in Germany's election — not by Russia, but by U.S. right wing

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/09/20/meddling-germany-election-not-russia-but-u-s-right-wing/676142001/

An alliance of mostly anonymous online trolls and extremist agitators meddled in Germany's election, but researchers said Russians mostly weren't to blame.

Instead, they said, right-wing groups in the United States were behind materials popping up on YouTube, messaging board sites like 4chan and reddit and texting service Gab.ai.

"A lot of the stuff we are seeing in Germany can be linked to, or is at least inspired by, the 'alt-right' movement in the U.S.," Hegelich said, referring to a loosely defined group whose far-right ideology includes racism and white nationalism.

Many denigrate both leading candidates — Merkel and her conservative Christian Democratic Union party, and her chief rival, Martin Schulz of the left-of-center Social Democratic Party — with the hashtags #Merkel and #Schulz.

And many of those posts originate in the U.S., adding to the impression that right-wing social media users in both countries may be trying to sway German public opinion. It's possible that some of this alt-right messaging coming out of the U.S. may be connected to Russian interference; that, too, is difficult to determine, Hegelich said.

A report published Wednesday by Hope Not Hate, a British anti-racism watchdog, concluded that the alt-right movement has "breathed life and youth back into formerly declining and dormant parts of the European extreme right."

The report, based on an undercover investigation of far-right figureheads, found that extremist individuals, organizations, websites and forums on both sides of the Atlantic are increasingly engaging with each another and "weaponizing" the Internet.