Germany Exposes Russian Disinformation Campaign On Elon Musk's Social Network

The German Foreign Ministry revealed the details.

According to the German weekly Der Spiegel, the German Foreign Ministry has uncovered a Russian disinformation campaign on Elon Musk's social network X (formerly Twitter). The goal of this campaign, apparently, is to increase dissatisfaction with the current coalition government of Germany in society and disrupt further support for Ukraine, the publication writes on Friday, January 26, citing an internal report from the Foreign Ministry.

50 thousand fake accounts in X

As noted further, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ordered experts to analyze messages in X using a special program, and as a result, a large-scale network of fake accounts distributing German-language content was identified.

Between December 20 and January 20, more than 50,000 such accounts posted a total of more than a million tweets in German, often accusing the federal government of allegedly neglecting its own population to support Ukraine, Der Spiegel notes, citing a secret report. The publication indicates that this is a “systematic Russian campaign” of disinformation.

Identifying Misinformation with Data Analysts

The German Foreign Ministry has been monitoring debates on foreign policy topics on social media for some time with the help of data analysts, trying to identify attempts at influence by foreign countries, the publication further writes.

As a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry told Der Spiegel, “disinformation has become a global threat factor.” “It is being deliberately used by those who do not share our values to destabilize entire societies — not just in Western democracies, but everywhere,” he added.