As the United States examines the role false news stories and Watch Believer Onlinealleged Russian hacking might have played in deciding the outcome of its election, Germany is hoping to avoid a similar situation.
German officials said Monday that the government is launching an investigation into the spread of fake news online as intelligence reports warn of a possible Russian plot to sway its election this fall, Reuters reports.
A spokesperson for Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency said in a press briefing that the problem has reached "a dimension that we have not seen before," according to the wire service.
SEE ALSO: Wildly exaggerated Breitbart story about church fire stirs outrage in GermanyThe agency also confirmed that a cyber attack aimed at a major intergovernmental security group last month followed the same method as a hack on Germany's parliament last year that was attributed to a Russian hacking group.
German intelligence officials claimed last month that the Russian government had put "enormous" funding towards a propaganda and disinformation campaign meant to undermine the German government's authority.
Russia has repeatedly denied U.S. intelligence reports claiming that it similarly interfered with the American presidential election.
German politicians have long worried that fake news campaigns could be used to stoke nativist resentment and Islamophobia in the lead-up to an election in which the country's far-right party stands to make major in-roads in Berlin.
In the weeks immediately following Donald Trump's victory last November, German chancellor Angela Merkel warned the country's parliament of a new media environment in which even the most basic facts might be disputed.
"Something has changed," Merkel, who will run for a fourth term in September, said, according to the Post. “Today we have fake sites, bots, trolls -- things that regenerate themselves, reinforcing opinions with certain algorithms, and we have to learn to deal with them.”
Officials have proposed a handful of possible countermeasures, including the creation of a government wing dedicated to hunting down and removing fake news and a fine for social networks that don't shut out false stories within a day.
Monday's announcement comes shortly after a German media report outed an inflammatory story in the right-wing blog Breitbartas exaggerated to the point of blatant fabrication. The article had tried to paint a group of New Years celebrants as a mob of angry migrants and a minor church fire sparked by fireworks as a full-scale arson on their part.
The far-right site will soon have a more robust presence in the country. Buoyed by the notoriety it achieved as Trump's unofficial campaign organ last year, Breitbarthas announced plans to launch French and German editions.
With several other European countries facing critical elections marked by the rise of right-wing populist movements, leaders across the continent are similarly worried. The Czech Republic recently launched a specialized government division focused entirely on shutting down misinformation.
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