Politics nd
AfD | AfD hack: A treasure trove of data and great responsibility
The data gap is an opportunity to deepen insights into the party. However, care should be taken against careless handling of the data. A comment.
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A huge amount of data is now freely available on the Internet. Photo: Carsten Koall/dpa The data from the AfD hack is a real treasure. Research and processing of the mountain of data consisting of hundreds of thousands of emails and tens of thousands of documents are currently only scratching the surface, but it is clear that they will help to get a better picture of the AfD. Scientists and anti-fascists can gain deeper insights into the party's discussion and decision-making processes through the emails.
Research from previous years can be corrected, confirmed and concretized using the data from the hack, as the new findings on Alice Weidel and the donations scandal show. Because of the sheer volume of data, new findings can be expected in the coming weeks and months. It is unlikely that the perfect reason for banning the AfD will be found, but it is certainly possible that the content of the party's internal emails will make a ban procedure more likely.
However, the AfD hack also comes with great responsibility for antifascists. As they say, the hackers did not take into account the publication of the data of bystanders because of the amount of data. And so, for example, personal data from first-time voters from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is now online. Anyone who wants to work with the data from the AfD hack should know and take this into account, especially if automation and artificial intelligence are used for the evaluation.
Finally, in the context of the hack, there are also simple fake emails in circulation. Emails that may have been sent out by opponents within the party. Antifascists should therefore carefully check what news of the hack they are spreading. Every false report that is credibly denied helps the AfD.
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