In the run-up to the German federal elections, digital hate and disinformation campaigns have reached alarming proportions. This report examines the spread of fake news and forms of digital violence on Facebook and Telegram targeting the three leading candidates from the CDU/CSU, SPD, and Alliance 90/The Greens. The analysis of extensive data shows that Annalena Baerbock (Alliance 90/The Greens) is subjected to significantly more hostility and disinformation campaigns than her male counterparts Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Armin Laschet (CDU).

According to the report, the Green Party’s lead candidate is “disproportionately often the target of systematic disinformation campaigns.” She is attacked, denigrated, and subjected to sexual harassment and threats of violence more frequently than her competitors Scholz and Laschet. Annalena Baerbock has been linked to conspiracy theories many times more often and described as a “danger to Germany” far more frequently than Olaf Scholz and Armin Laschet. She has repeatedly been the target of gender-specific accusations of incompetence.

This study, based on an analysis of the 100 most shared posts about the candidates on Facebook and Telegram channels belonging to the far-right and conspiracy-minded milieu between February and July 2021, yields the following results:

• All three leading candidates from the CDU, SPD, and Alliance 90/The Greens have been targeted with digital attacks in the context of the upcoming federal elections. In particular, potentially illegal content such as threats, insults, defamation, and homophobic or anti-Semitic hate speech was disseminated via the Telegram messaging app.
• The chancellor candidate of Alliance 90/The Greens, Annalena Baerbock, was targeted far more frequently with attacks involving conspiracy myths, disinformation and misinformation compared to SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz and CDU chancellor candidate Armin Laschet.

Digital violence and disinformation pose significant risks to the integrity of our democracy, especially in the run-up to an election. Furthermore, the observed gender-specific disinformation and misinformation campaigns can lead to women and people with a migration background withdrawing from digital discourse and ultimately from democratic processes.