Fehlinformationen über den Magdeburger Anschlag kursieren online

Fehlinformationen über den Magdeburger Anschlag vor der Bundestagswahl verbreiten sich online.

Transcript

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

00:09Weeks after a car was rammed into a Christmas market in Magdeburg,

00:13killing six and injuring more than 200 others,

00:16false 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

00:24that German 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,

00:42and that it shows officers arresting participants at a pro-Palestine demonstration.

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

00:51in 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.

01:07However, 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.

01:53Untertitel im Auftrag des ZDF für funk, 2017