Q&A: Disinformation is a major threat to democracy, ex-Austrian chancellors' spokesperson warns

euronews (in English)

Gerald Fleischmann — the spokesperson for two former Austrian leaders — warns that democracy is at risk from online influencers covertly spreading disinformation.

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00:00Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's spokesperson Gerald Fleischmann has published

00:06a book that came out on 1st February called The Codes of Extremists.

00:12Fleischmann warns that European democracy is at risk from influencers covertly spreading

00:17misinformation and that extremism is dangerous for Europe's stability.

00:22Because of the decline of traditional media, which is also operated by these radical groups,

00:29this common public is being lost.

00:32Keyword, these famous echo chambers, filter bubbles.

00:36The young people are losing themselves, so to speak, in a world outside the traditional media.

00:42Many no longer consume traditional media at all.

00:46And there are two things that are important.

00:49First, it is important to note that all social media platforms either come from America,

00:56or from Russia, or from Asia, like China, and not a single one from Europe.

01:05The people, the mass of the population is referred to in these secret services as sleepwalkers.

01:12And these sleepwalkers are supposed to be trained to consume false information with constant false information,

01:22so that in the end the entire society no longer knows what is actually right, what is wrong.

01:32This is the goal of foreign powers.

01:35In this case, one has to say openly, on the one hand, Russia,

01:39on the other hand, radical currents from the Arab world.

01:44And the goal, in short, is to influence a new generation, younger people,

01:52and above all, to destabilize Western democracy.

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