Shortly after the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine began, a special task force of the interministerial working group on hybrid threats was formed under the lead of the BMI to focus on the situation in Russia and Ukraine. The task force ensures regular communication among the federal ministries and agencies to identify and avert hybrid threats, in particular disinformation, related to Russia’s war in Ukraine. This task force on disinformation focuses on ways to identify Russian narratives, reinforce fact-based communication and increase public resilience against threats entering from the information space.

The Federal Foreign Office, the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government, and the BMI and its executive agencies are carefully monitoring the information space with regard to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine for false and misleading information. They are engaged in an ongoing and intensive exchange of findings with other ministries and government agencies at federal and state level.

The emphasis is always on proactive, fact-based communication tailored to the target group, to provide information on the current situation and the government response.

In addition to appropriate reactive measures such as debunking false information, prevention is a major priority of the Federal Government, as are measures to increase resilience of the entire state and society. Measures to increase public awareness of the issue of disinformation and to encourage a more critical approach to information and sources, particularly those in social media, are an integral part of this task, which is the responsibility of our entire society. Media literacy must be promoted and increased across all age groups and segments of society. To achieve that, the Federal Government supports various projects aimed at improving media literacy and at protecting and strengthening independent journalism. Independent media play a very important and valuable role, among other things by providing fact-checking. The Federal Government expressly welcomes fact-checking by independent research institutes and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as well. 

Along with these whole-of-society efforts to resist illegitimate influence by foreign governments, another important component is the work at European level, in particular in the Council working party on hybrid threats, with partner countries and in international networks such as the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM). Maintaining networks among the federal, state and local governments and security authorities is equally important in order to deal effectively with disinformation.

All levels of government must pursue viable approaches to fight disinformation effectively and establish the necessary structures to have an impact on all of society. To do so, good practices that have proved useful in other countries can be applied and modified as needed. Germany can set an example in some areas.

Providers of social media also have a key role in possible measures to stop the spread of false or misleading information. Transparent rules that are strictly enforced by social media providers are essential. The Federal Government regularly communicates with social media providers concerning this issue.

Federal Minister Faeser regularly talks about the extensive measures to combat disinformation, as she did at the symposium of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and at the re:publica conference on digital society in Europe.

Federal Minister Faeser spoke about the joint efforts to fight disinformation also at the meeting of G7 interior and security ministers: https://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/kurzmeldungen/EN/2022/11/g7.html

The Federal Government Commissioner for Matters Related to Ethnic German Resettlers and National Minorities, Natalie Pawlik, has also spoken about combating disinformation, for example in an Interview (in German) with the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government.