The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has warned against disinformation on the internet in light of the state elections in several eastern German states. You cannot always rely on the fact that content on the internet in 2024 is actually people expressing their opinions, said President Claudia Plattner on Tuesday after a meeting with the Saxon cabinet in Dresden. "There are a lot of opinion amplifiers and they are purely electronic." This needs to be made clear - as does the fact that there are deliberate intentions behind it.
In the long term, it is important to find mechanisms that make it possible to identify the reliability of the material and the sender, said Plattner. "At the moment, we are very much dependent on raising awareness among citizens in this area." In the age of artificial intelligence and deep fakes, you can't even rely on the fact that what you see and hear is really what you think you see and hear. Unfortunately, it is relatively easy to put words in people's mouths that they have never said.
