re:publica 25
26th-28th May 2025
STATION Berlin
Science, facts and truth are becoming less important in discourses that are increasingly taking place on social media. While some parties and media are generating huge reach with deliberately misleading headlines or targeted disinformation, serious reporting and fact-checkers are lagging behind.
For Volksverpetzer editors Thomas Laschyk and Philip Kreißel, one thing is clear: while lies reach an audience of millions, fact checks are often only noticed by a few. Their anti-fake news blog shows how we can cleverly use social media algorithms, framing and emotions to create more reach for facts. Because in order to provide more information in dangerous times, we need less dissemination of disinformation and more advertising for the truth.
Thomas Laschyk is a blogger and online activist. He is also co-founder, managing editor and managing director of Volksverpetzer. In his first book "Werbung für die Wahrheit" (Advertising for the truth), he explains why people really fall for fake news and why so much educational work is ineffective. He describes what is going wrong in the German media landscape and also takes stock of the responsibility of some traditional media organisations in the fight against disinformation.
Philip Kreißel is a data analyst, specialising in the analysis of social media data. Since 2017, he has been analysing Facebook data on a voluntary basis for the counterspeech group "#ichbinhier", focusing on hate speech. Together with ISD Global, he worked on the study "Hass auf Knopfdruck" (Hate at the push of a button), in which the manipulation of German Facebook comment columns by extremist actors was proven. He studies political science and computer science at the University of Leipzig.
At #rp24, we are looking forward to hearing from Thomas and Philip about what we can do to counter targeted disinformation - and how we can all be part of the solution.
Werbung für die Wahrheit - Aufmerksamkeit für Fakten schaffen
Thomas Laschyk, Philip Kreißel