Last summer, a case of fake news about refugees made headlines. At a country fair in the German city of Schorndorf, details about young migrants at the fair and ongoing riots were misinterpreted by the German press agency dpa from a police report.

Various media picked up the story and reported about 1,000 rioting youths, many of them from migrant backgrounds, evoking scenes from New Year 2015 in Cologne when many women were sexually assaulted by men reportedly of North African and Arabic origins.

What the police report had stated, however, was that there were 1,000 youths present at the Schorndorf fair, many of them from migrant backgrounds, and that there had been incidents of rioting at the fair as well.

Though dpa did not intentionally fabricate the news and later issued a correction, the "news" was quickly disseminated via social media. Over 70,000 users shared or commented on the story.

The Schorndorf fake news story was triggered by a case of poor journalism. Often, however, fake news is fabricated on purpose. The "Stiftung Neue Verantwortung" research foundation in Berlin has released a 100-page study on fake news in the lead-up to the elections in September 2017. The study focused on ten cases of fake news in the six months preceding the elections, with eight of the cases relating to refugees.

AfD leads dissemination of fake news

Before the German parliamentary elections, some people warned that Russia was fabricating and promoting fake news in Germany, just as Russia had been accused of interference in the 2016 US presidential ballot, contributing to the victory of Donald Trump. The results of the Stiftung Neue Verantwortung study show however that the fake news examined was mainly disseminated by right-wing groups in Germany, by the "populist right and extreme right".

The far-right party Alternative Party for Germany (AfD) spearheaded the role of disseminating the news, being the disseminator with the largest reach in seven out of ten cases. In most cases, fake news was spread on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, forums, blogs and YouTube.

Traditional media, role of authorities

The study revealed that some traditional media also played a role in fabrication or dissemination: in some cases as an accidental accelerator, in others as a conscious trigger. Mostly however, as in the Schorndorf case, the cause was indirect such as lack of "critical correction" or fact-checking of news items.                                                                           

The police and other authorities, in press statements, tweets, or media interviews, also made mistakes, according to the study. Right-wing activists seized on these mistakes and used them in campaigns against refugees and migration.

Another of the ten cases of fake news covered in the report began with comments by a state interior minister in response to a question from the AfD who said “If those recognized as being entitled to asylum were traveling home for the purpose of vacation in spite of persecution or danger, it would be right to question the need of these foreign individuals for protection.” Before long, a report by the dpa led to a fake news narrative in which it was reported as “fact” that asylum seekers were going home for a vacation and returning. The AfD reacted to this in a Facebook post with the headline: "Mach Fluchturlaub im Heimatland!" - "Take a refugee vacation in your home country!" showing a photo of a beach in Syria. The post received 11,000 reactions, comments, shares or clicks.

Was there an impact on the election results?

Voters' attitudes towards migrants and refugees were expected to be a deciding factor in the outcome of 2017 election, as many people considered it a referendum on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s so-called "open door policy" on refugees.

The Stiftung Neue Verantwortung report does not directly answer the question how fake news impacted on voters at the ballot box. It does suggest that most instances of fake news disseminated in the pre-election period related to refugees and migration, and concludes that fake news is a symptom of deeper social problems -- a post-truth era, populism and right-wing extremism -- that need to be addressed at the level of politics and civil society.