29 August 2018: The online portal of the Mittelbayerische Zeitung publishes a report about the benefit concert „#wirsindmehr“ in Chemnitz. This is a reaction to the marches of far rights after the death of Daniel H.. Due to a technical error a wrong date is displayed above the article. August 24, 2018, the day before Daniel H. died. The website Anonymous News takes up this initially insignificant error and constructs a conspiracy theory from it.
Anonymous News has often attracted attention with its coverage and is not unknown in the media industry. For some time now, the website has been spreading false reports and conspiracy theories. The articles mostly deal with topics that are occupied by the politically right-wing – so-called „discovery stories“ about left-wing politicians, alleged crimes committed by asylum seekers, and the alleged criminal machinations of the federal government. In addition to false reports, the site disseminates conspiracy theories from the right-wing scene and fires them up. The focus is often on media companies and their reporting; the media are referred to as „system media“ and „the lying press“. This affects public broadcasters just as private media. In addition to television broadcasters, newspaper publishers and online platforms of established media are also being attacked.
Until 2016, there was a Facebook presence under the name „Anonymous.Kollektiv“, where new articles were advertised and shared. The site used – both in name and symbols – the well-known hacker collective Anonymous, which has already repeatedly distanced itself from the German „spin-off“. In addition to the Facebook page, a German domain anonymousnews.de was also operated. This was repeatedly used to present false reports and findings taken out of context. Meanwhile Anonymous News distributes its contents via a Russian domain and thus evades the imprint obligation applicable in Germany. To determine the responsible persons of the side was not possible so far. The procedure of Anonymous News follows a certain pattern. Confirmed facts are woven into the articles again and again. By overlapping content with other media articles, the reports are supposed to be more credible. However, the actual facts are falsified by distorting headings and comments. Politically extremist positions are taken.
This also happened in the case of the Mittelbayerische Zeitung. Anonymous News picked up the news about the upcoming „#wirsindmehr“-concert against the right wing extremists in Chemnitz. This fact was interwoven with misinformation. Accordingly, the concert in question is allegedly part of a conspiracy. The death of Daniel H. was therefore planned by the government and the media were informed about the further course of events in advance. The reference to a current topic is intended to suggest seriousness at first glance.
Anonymous News procedure with many reports in a similar way. In this way, messages from political or social areas that have no relation to each other are linked and structures are constructed that do not exist. The wording of the articles has recurring elements. These include not only lurid headlines, but also new word creations and terms that can be attributed to right-wing populism. More harmless formulations refer to asylum seekers as „asylum demanders“ or „Merkel’s specialists“. Often they aim for insulting and discrediting people in public life. The SPD member of the Bundestag Johannes Kahrs is repeatedly insulted as a „howler monkey“ or „rosette clown“. This pattern can also be found in reports about the Mittelbayerische Zeitung. The „Teleschau – Der Mediendienst GmbH“, a content supplier, provides news for their cultural department. Everyday life in modern journalism. Due to an outdated source code, which determines the publication date of the articles, a wrong date had been indicated for the report about the concert in Chemnitz.
At first nobody noticed this, neither the Teleschau nor the publisher, because it was only a small cultural report. Claudia Bockholt, the director of the Mittelbayerische Zeitung newsroom, explains that this is not the first time that the newspaper has to handle misinterpreted news. „We have all seen this a thousand times in recent years. It is common practice to be misinterpreted.“ But even for established journalists it is not everyday when their profession and their activities are instrumentalized so far away from reality: „There were already colleagues who were shocked when they heard these accusations. Especially about this completely abstruse construction of conspiracy theory“.
The Constructed Story around the Mittelbayerische Zeitung is not an isolated case. The website does not shy away from national media. The Germanist Sören Stumpf from the University of Trier deals in his research with the linguistic construction of conspiracy theories and in this context has examined YouTube comments under Videos: „The decisive thing about conspiracy theories is that it is a version that tries to explain and then reinterpret certain things, facts, events in contrast to an official version and to retell them in the sense of conspiracy theory”.
In the case of the Mittelbayerische Zeitung, Anonymous News not only reinterpreted facts, but concealed new facts. The technical explanation of the dating error was published shortly after it became known. Anonymous News deliberately ignored this.
A similar concept can be found in connection with filming in Berlin. Specifically, it is about the YouTube channel „Bohemian Browser Ballet“, which satirically refers to current topics. As part of a project for SWR, the riots in Chemnitz, which led to racist violence, were satirically taken up. Among other things, an information stand of the AfD can be seen, where demonstrators ready for violence are directly recruited. Anonymous News took up this aspect of the satire video and published an article entitled „Revealed: System media fake AfD stand and shoot film scene in which foreigners are hunted“. The article further states that a news report should be staged to rush against the right-wing populist party AfD.
Anonymous News, however, concealed the context in which the video was created. SWR company spokesman Wolfgang Utz said that the shooting had been recognizable at all times. Several tents were provided for the performers and the film team and were visible for everyone. In addition, it was an officially approved filming on the Anton-Saefkow-Platz in Berlin. By omitting this information, Anonymous News has deliberately discredited SWR. And what does AfD Berlin make of it? It announces that it will take legal action against SWR. Further the Afd declared: „The AfD should be silenced with all conceivable methods. No dirty campaigning method is too good for our opponents.“ As source the AfD Berlin refers to a video of the shooting filmed by passers-by, which also links Anonymous News as alleged evidence.
Facts do not only distort Anonymous News by ignoring corrections, as in the case of MZ. While the Mittelbayerische Zeitung has learned about the falsified reporting, other media companies are often unaware of it. Again and again, Anonymous News features articles by other people that were not originally written for the platform. Among them are articles from the online portals of Sputnik News and Junge Freiheit, which call themselves „alternative news sites,“ but also articles from media industry services such as MEEDIA. Upon request, we learned from the providers that the articles were published on Anonymous News without the consent or knowledge of the authors and editors-in-chief.
The articles of other media companies are copied according to a certain pattern. Anonymous News changes the headings of articles to achieve their intentions. In addition to misleading titles, the texts of stolen articles also include ideological commentaries. So „Who does Angela Merkel really serve? Power of the media in Germany“ by Sputnik News turns into „Who Supports Merkel’s Power? The sticky-felt web of mainstream media and politics“ on Anonymous News. This puts already system-critical articles, like those on Sputnik News and Junge Freiheit, in a right-wing populist perspective.
In the case of MEEDIA even non-political messages are misused for a proof against the “system media”. The actual authors are mentioned on Anonymous News, but it is not obvious that the content was not produced for another website. Only the names of the authors are linked to the original source of the article. At our request, MEEDIA announced that it would take legal action against Anonymous News. However, many self-produced articles on Anonymous News have no named authors at all. If an author’s name is given, you will be directed to a donation page where the website asks for financial support. It says, „A donation for political prisoners in Germany.“ In addition, a bank account is given and called upon to donate for „politically incorrect“ persons who have become active.
What is the purpose of Anonymous News with the false reports and right-wing conspiracy theories, with the sympathies for right-wing populist and right-wing radical positions? This cannot be proven, but certainly a political intention is recognizable. It is striking that established parties and the existing media system are portrayed as enemies and part of a plot. According to Stumpf, not all conspiracy theorists are politically motivated. But there are theories that explicitly identify and expose supposedly criminal conspired political circles and conspiracy systems. Stumpf cites the pizza gate around Hillary Clinton as a classic example. According to this conspiracy theory, the then US Secretary of State is supposed to be part of a secret child porn-ring for the elite of the United States. Such conspiracy theories are not only circulating in the USA, but are also becoming increasingly widespread in Europe.
In addition to the mistrust that conspiracy theories want to fuel against the democratic multi-party system, Stumpf names another intention: money. The economic professionalization of conspiracy theories is a lucrative business. Stumpf also mentions German-language examples, such as the Compact magazine or Kopp-Verlag. „There are sometimes entire organs of publication that deal with conspiracy-theories and discovered it as a gap in the market or as a good source of money. „The Compact magazine is classified by researchers as a voice of the AfD. At least a certain sympathy for right-wing populist positions cannot be dismissed. Platforms like Anonymous News have to be evaluated differently once again. A clearly recognizable strategy and also a difference to other right-wing populist media is the seemingly random selection of topics. While Anonymous News also argues against the Merkel government and the political order as a whole, not with counterarguments, but with misrepresentations and distorted facts. Stumpf comes to the conclusion that conspiracy theory platforms primarily argue against the official version of facts by seeking contradictions and indecisiveness in it. Counterstatements hardly affect the popularity and legitimacy of conspiracy theorists. Stumpf says that strong counterarguments and critics are dismissed as part of the conspiracy. For consumers of anonymous news, however, this is exactly what makes the conspiracy side credible. Stumpf: „Certain things, which can actually be explained simply as coincidence, are classified into the big picture there”.“Conspiracy theories are characterized by the fact that there is no coincidence,“ says Stumpf. „Everything is somehow networked and interwoven. Behind it there is always somehow a system“.
Anonymous News presents itself on their website as the voice of a persecuted minority that has a selfless interest in finding the truth. Critics are seen as part of the overpowering conspiracy machinery of discredited, says Stumpf. No matter if they are media institutions, democratically elected representatives or journalists. Referring to the case of the Mittelbayerische Zeitung, even small journalistic mistakes are staged as large-scale conspiracies. Bockholt, the head of the Newsrooms of the Mittelbayerische Zeitung, draws a similarly serious conclusion from the most recent incidents: „Of course there used to be the usual accusations such as ’system press‘ and so on. But at least there were still these accusations. People tried to talk with us. I can still react to that. I can straighten things out. But the followers of conspiracy theories, the followers of obscure right-wing platforms, they no longer deal with us. We won’t reach them any more.“
