In 2024, more attention than ever before has been focused on the integrity and resilience of democratic elections. Concerns about disinformation campaigns were high during this super election
year—and remain so with the upcoming U.S. elections in November. Globally, the attention
given to and investigation of disinformation campaigns, meaning the deliberate and manipulative
spread of false information, has increased significantly. In November 2023, The New York Times
declared the elections in Argentina as the first AI election and predicted a wave of AI-generated
disinformation. Numerous analyses on Taiwan (January), Indonesia (February), South Africa (May), Mexico (June), and the European Parliament elections (June) followed. The common thread: Disinformation campaigns by state-affiliated actors (Russia, China) are being launched, bots and fake
accounts are attempting to influence social media, and AI-generated content is being deployed in
all these countries. The crucial question is to what extent such campaigns are effective, influence
voter behaviour, and sustainably manipulate digital discourses. This question is particularly important to answer as more pivotal elections are on the horizon—besides the U.S. presidential elections this year, the German federal election will take place next year.
Against this backdrop, we sought to develop a deeper understanding of how well our societies
are prepared for the challenges posed by disinformation and what measures should be taken
from the perspective of the public.
For this study, 5,055 people in Germany were surveyed between 4 and 17 October 2023. In parallel,
2,018 people were also surveyed in the United States. In both cases, the target population
was residents aged 16 and over.
