Reading the Correctiv article, that has lead to the #AfDVerbot protests. I'm eerily looking at how the UK #Tory & #Reform parties are working in the UK right now:
"There is talk of influencers, propaganda, campaigns, and university projects. The tools to establish a right-wing anti-establishment climate. And ultimately the tools to weaken Germany’s democracy by questioning elections, discrediting the constitutional court, suppressing opposing views and censoring public service broadcasting."
1/
We already have this in action:
- Braverman's attacks on "leftie lawyers" who defend asylum seekers
- Johnson's fight with the Civil Service as the "woke blob"
- Requiring ID to vote in elections, which is likely to lead to lower turnout, especially in poorer, & younger communities under the guise of preventing "election fraud", despite very low rates of such in the UK.
- Making peaceful protests illegal
- Putting right wing figures in charge of the BBC & repeatedly cutting the funding.
2/
Their discussions of how to make donations by "legal" or via "third parties or agencies" rings another resonant note.
The UK election & political funding is already opaque, and regularly abused, while the elections monitor has further had their role restricted since the Tories have been in power.
Funding of Tufton Street & European Research Group affiliations are v. opaque, yet these groups have major influence over MPs and regularly host political events, which are private & undocumented
3/
"the AfD plans to target young people on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube with content that will normalise the party’s ideas."
- there is almost no regulation of social media, in the UK, either to prevent the spread of misinformation, or to establish how election campaigns are being funded.
- We still don't know the full extent of social media on the Brexit referendum
4/
The online safety bill is meant to make the internet safer and allow regulators to enforce rules on age restricted sites. I can't see this happening if we can't even fully enforce the GDPR and companies still hand data to social media companies, usually we are forced to consent as to make a website function we need to consent to cookies, some of which probably hand over that data.
