It pays to lie: those who tell untruths on the internet are now often very successful in politics. Observers usually only look at the short-term consequences of political campaigns on the Internet. The consequences of lies and false statements by politicians on the internet have not yet been scientifically observed over longer periods of time. A recently established ‘Observatory for Online Politics’ at Saarland University now wants to change this.
Saarbrücken/Germany, March 19, 2025. Immigrants from Haiti eat dogs and cats in the neighbourhood in Ohio, claimed the current US President Donald Trump during the election campaign: election campaigns on the internet are conducted with lies like this, which now also pay off for the candidates who spread such lies. The fact that this is the case may be a long-term consequence of false claims and behaviour on the internet that would have been unthinkable or unspeakable a decade or two ago.
‘Especially today, now that many social media platforms have stopped fact-checking altogether and hardly intervene in discussions in a moderating capacity, lies and false claims are spreading at breakneck speed,’ says Rosa M. Navarrete, historian and political scientist in the department of Daniela Braun, Professor of Political Science at Saarland University. She heads the newly established ‘Observatory for Online Politics’, where she and her colleagues Alex Hartland and Giuseppe Carteny, like Navarrete also postdoctoral researchers in Professor Daniela Braun’s department, are researching the long-term consequences of political action in the digital space. The Observatory for Online Politics is also part of the Interdisciplinary Institute for Societal Computing (I2SC), which is jointly led by Daniela Braun and computer scientist Professor Ingmar Weber.
‘The majority of political science research focuses on short-term analyses of political action on the internet. The long-term consequences, on the other hand, have hardly been scientifically analysed to date,’ says the expert, who has been studying the influence of digital media on political attitudes for many years. It is true that social media as a source of political information does not directly mean that people no longer see democracy as the best form of government. ‘But satisfaction with democracy is steadily declining slightly,’ the researcher observes. This steady, slow ‘seeping in’ is the main motive for Rosa Navarrete and her colleagues to take a closer look at the long-term effects of political action on the internet.
So does the constant dripping really make the stone grow, as the saying goes? ‘Disinformation may not necessarily be noticeable because people actually believe the lies that politicians tell them on the internet. Fake news becomes particularly dangerous when language and behaviour that was previously socially unacceptable becomes normalised,’ summarises Rosa Navarrete.
‘The more people are exposed to extreme content, shocking images and toxic rhetoric online, the more likely they are to accept such behaviour in their offline lives,’ explains the researcher. ‘For example, if citizens are frequently exposed to dehumanising content about immigrants accompanied by cheering comments, they may be less inclined to speak out against this rhetoric – even if it contradicts democratic values.’
In this context, Rosa Navarrete emphasises the importance of understanding how political parties communicate online and use deception as a strategic tool. ‘The risks of being penalised for misleading the electorate seem to be lower than the potential benefits,’ she notes. In short: lying now pays off for politicians.
This is why the work of the Online Politics Observatory is crucial. With the answers to the question of how politics on the internet works in the long term, targeted strategies can be developed to strengthen democracy again instead of weakening it – so that lying no longer pays.
Background: Interdisciplinary Institute for Societal Computing (I2SC)
The institute promotes interdisciplinary research at Saarland University and provides a platform for dialogue between the social sciences, humanities and computer sciences. It is headed by Ingmar Weber, Humboldt Professor of Artificial Intelligence, and Daniela Braun, Professor of Political Science. The Institute’s research work is divided into two main areas: Computing of Society and Computing for Society. The first area focuses on the use of computer-based methods to research social phenomena. The second focus is on using these methods to develop approaches to improve social coexistence.
Further information:
(www.i2sc.net)
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