How right-wing groups use social media to spread false information about refugees

It's easy to think that if you see an article by a trustworthy news organization posted somewhere on Facebook and Twitter, the information in this article is correct. Well, think again. More and more articles and photos are taken out of context by far-right groups trying to spread false information about refugees in Germany. And all too often, their fake posts are being reshared and reposted across the web and might make it onto your newsfeed as well.

And it's not just social media posts by private people that can contain distorted information. The widely-read German website "Spiegel Online" revealed how one of its online articles was manipulated in a Facebook post by the anti-immigrant group PEGIDA, which stands for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West.

Instead of posting the original headline, PEGIDA gave it a little twist so it would fit its own agenda, and presented it as if it was the actual headline used by Spiegel Online. While the real title said "Refugees in Macedonia: Panic in front of the fence," the operators of the PEGIDA Facebook page changed it to: "Asylum imposters climb Eurocity train and head from Macedonia to Germany."

Although spreading fabricated information online is very common and hard to stop, there are groups trying to fight the phenomenon, especially when it comes to false information about refugees.

The association Mimikama.at is one of them. 15 volunteers check suspicious posts that were sent to them by their 560,000 followers every day to debunk fake information circulating the web, such as fake news articles, pictures that were taken out of context and manipulated headlines.

"They don't represent the truth and they add fuel to the fire," Andre Wolf, one of these volunteers, told DW.

Read the full article on dw.com