How fake news about the Magdeburg attack is spreading ahead of the German elections

Some politicians and social media users have been accused of using the incident for political gain.

Transcript

00:00Fake news about the Magdeburg attack continues to spread online.

00:08Weeks after a car was rammed into a Christmas market in Magdeburg,

00:12killing six and injuring more than 200 others,

00:15false claims about the attack are still being shared by Internet users and politicians alike.

00:21This video, for example, has been shared with a caption saying that

00:24German police arrested Muslim extremists who support terrorism

00:28the day after the attack which saw a Saudi-born doctor plow into civilians.

00:33However, the video has already been community noted,

00:36explaining that the video was shot on the 20th of December,

00:39a day before the attack in Magdeburg,

00:41and that it shows officers arresting participants at a pro-Palestine demonstration.

00:46In many instances, false claims about the attack have also been disseminated

00:50in the context of Germany's upcoming federal elections,

00:54in an effort to politicize the incident.

00:56Certain politicians have been at the center, such as Alice Weidel,

01:00co-chair of the far-right AFD party,

01:03who alleged that the perpetrator was an Islamist filled with hatred.

01:06However, officials say that Taleb al-Abdulmosen is an atypical attacker,

01:11and he's previously described himself as an aggressive critic of Islam,

01:15while also expressing support for AFD.

01:18The party has distanced itself from the attacker,

01:21assuring it has nothing to do with him.

01:23This image allegedly depicts social democratic MP Saskia Esken

01:27speaking out against the deportation of the attacker,

01:30and calling for him to be forgiven on political talk show lands.

01:34But fact-checkers have already debunked this.

01:36A community note shows that the timeline doesn't add up

01:39for when Esken allegedly made the comments, and when the attack took place.

01:43Unfortunately, there are plenty of other examples of this,

01:46and as Germany's elections approach,

01:48it's crucial that citizens are correctly informed before they cast their votes.

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