ISD Germany

ISD Germany's work builds on 15 years of ISD research and programming in the heart of European democracy. We work to combat polarisation and extremism across Europe and to mitigate hybrid threats to democratic liberties and rights.

ISD Germany was founded in 2019, but our work in providing strategic advice and tailor-made training programs to federal ministries and state institutions as well as to companies and civil society organisations dates back much further. At its centre is rigorous research using innovative digital methods that we apply with academic, private and public sector partners in various European countries.

ISD Germany’s team includes experts working on multi-year projects related to extremist groups, foreign influence operations, platform accountability, digital civic education and strategic communications.

Sector-leading research on extremism and influence operations

ISD Germany has published over 40 major reports on issues ranging from online extremism and antisemitism to the role of tech platform algorithms and foreign information manipulation operations. This includes regular monitoring of disinformation and influence campaigns around national and regional elections, including the federal election in early 2025.

In 2022, ISD Germany released a guide to help civil society organisations counter antisemitism online across a range of platforms, building on the perspectives and expertise of Jewish communities. Three years later, ISD Germany researchers released the high-impact report was Mapping the GerManosphere, the first study to comprehensively analyse and map the misogynist “Mannosphäre” on the German-speaking internet.

From 2021 to 2024, ISD Germany ran a three-year project to map the German-speaking right-wing extremist ecosystem of ‘alternative’ online platforms and their interaction with established platforms. Our research highlighted challenges around right-wing extremism on platforms such as Telegram, Odysee, Rumble and VK, which we presented to key stakeholders including researchers, policymakers, civil society, law enforcement and platform representatives from the Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) sector.

Unique education, training and advisory capabilities

The Business Council for Democracy (BC4D) is a unique education programme which trains adults on digital civic culture through their workplace, enabling them to detect information manipulation. More than 120 major German companies have joined the initiative, which is co-led and co-funded by the Hertie Foundation and supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation.

Project AHEAD, funded by the Gates Foundation and Mercator Foundation, has helped hundreds of policymakers better understand the threat landscape, up-skilling their strategic communications teams. As part of the AHEAD project, ISD Germany created a guide to handling information manipulation for MPs’ offices, ministries and other authorities, and provides advice on engaging with extremist organisations and authoritarian states.

Since 2020, ISD Germany has run the Digital Policy Lab (DPL) with support from the German Foreign Office and funding from the Alfred Landecker Foundation. Convening government officials and national regulators from 13 countries and the EU, the DPL provides policymakers with access to best-in-class expertise and research.

.