【Fulwa (2025) Hindi Short Film】

A Russian-language network of Twitter bots tried to boost claims of voter fraud going into Germany's national elections on Fulwa (2025) Hindi Short FilmSept. 24.

Those elections seem to have largely avoided the alleged Russian interference that had recently taken place in both the United States and France, but Russian-language bots still seized on a claim made by what appears to be a fake account, according to The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab.

SEE ALSO: Why Russia hasn't successfully screwed with Germany's election — yet

On Sept. 22, an account sent a tweet in German (translated below) that made it seem as though someone going by the name of "Sahrer" was going to help run the election, and would invalidate votes in favor of Alternative for Germany, a far-right party whose leaders have developed friendships in Moscow.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The above account photo, as pointed out by the Digital Forensic Research Lab, is actually a Pakistani actress with some digitally-altered red hair, and the account didn't post much until it was close to election time in Germany.

"The activity indicates a high likelihood this is a fake account pushing a message to provoke a reaction from the far right, and, potentially, to call the legitimacy of the election into question," the researchers wrote in a Medium post.

That message found success, though not without help from the Russian-language botnet.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Alternative for Germany supporters had been tweeting #Wahlbetrug (#ElectionFraud) in the week before the election, and they used that hashtag to bring attention to this incendiary tweet, too. But that hashtag got a giant boost going into the weekend. Researchers wrote that "the traffic was not organic, but boosted by a network of automated 'bot' accounts" operating "largely in Russian."

Several experts expected the Russian government might try to degrade Germany's election integrity instead of trying to unseat Chancellor Angela Merkel, a rival of Russian President Vladimir Putin who pushed for anti-Moscow sanctions after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine. Merkel's Christian Democratic Union was likely to win the election, but that didn't mean there was nothing for a Russian influence operation to do.

"You just have to have people doubt that their votes were counted," Adam Segal, the director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. 

And Moscow may have realized that, even if they weren't able to knock Merkel from her perch, the election results were still likely to be favorable.

Merkel's Christian Democratic Union handily won a majority of parliamentary seats, with 33 percent of the vote, but that number was still far off from the 41 percent they took home in 2013. Alternative for Germany, the first far-right party in the German parliament in well over half a century, took home around 13 percent of the vote.

Considering Moscow's ties to Germany's resurgent far-right, it's hard not to see that as a victory of sorts for Moscow.

Speaking before the election, Joerg Forbrig, a senior transatlantic fellow with The German Marshall Fund, a transatlantic policy institute, said, "If the aim is to weaken Merkel, the Kremlin may decide that a risky last-minute interference is not necessary."

---

Featured Video For You

---

Elon Musk's self-taught AI bot destroyed an esports pro in 'Dota 2'

---

Topics X/Twitter Elections Politics

• Shopping
• Social Good
• Games
• Science
• Tech
• Deals
• Entertainment
• Digital Culture

• Wordle today: The answer and hints for January 28, 2025
• Teaching Them a Lesson
• Come on Now, Boys
• Fueling Resistance
• Even Trump's Earth Day message was anti
• Utopia, No
• Beats Pill speaker is at its lowest
• Teaching Them a Lesson
• China just built the world's biggest floating solar project
• Bromanticism

• Samsung's Galaxy S10 Lite and Note10 Lite look pretty damn good in person
• Sony randomly announced a concept car at CES just because they could
• Women's mansplaining experiences will make you want to throw things
• Cute grandparents are devoted to 2 things: Each other and In
• One brewery's latest beer took the trip from the toilet to the tap
• 'BBC dad' announces CNN interview with the perfect dad joke
• Tesla rival Fisker to sell Ocean SUV for $37,499, and it has karaoke
• Tomi Lahren suspended from TheBlaze over abortion comment backlash
• Google Assistant added a bunch of cool features for 2020
• Airbnb is going all out to woo China, and even has a new Chinese name

• Man City vs. Real Madrid 2025 livestream: Watch Champions League for free
• Death of a Poet
• Desiring Machines
• Teaching Them a Lesson
• Trump praises storm response as historic disaster unfolds in Houston
• The Hate Debate
• Worldwide Wireless Energy
• Worldwide Wireless Energy
• The Best Sports Video Game of All Time
• Justice in a Union

• Then and Now: Six Generations of $200 Mainstream Radeon GPUs Compared
• Razors, Razors, Razors
• The Emperor’s New Rules
• Majority Rapport
• AC Milan vs. Feyenoord 2025 livestream: Watch Champions League for free
• Majority Rapport
• Occupation Without End
• Homage to Old Rottenhat
• Greenpeace activists charged after unfurling 'Resist' banner at Trump Tower in Chicago
• Stuck in the Suburbs