
Head of German Conversative Party CDU Asks to “Regulate” Influencers - martin_a
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/reaktion-auf-rezo-akk-will-im-wahlkampf-regeln-fuer-influencer-16209710.html
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martin_a
Some context for this: The German YouTuber "Rezo", normally known for rather
"intellectual low-level" videos published a video last week titled "The
destruction of the CDU" [1] where he analyzed the politics of the largest
German Conservative Party, the CDU and outlined how they are actively
endangering our future with their style of politics.

While one might argue that he made some minor mistakes while choosing sources
or interpreting the numbers he found, all in all it's a solid 55 minute video
which is quite on point and has all the sources linked for everyone to look
at.

In only a few days this video hit the 5 million views mark and was discussed
all around German news.

Instead of arguing contentwise with or against the video, the CDU and its
members took action like some headless chickens, defamed the YouTuber and so
on. They even published an 11 page long PDF which was mostly emotional and
pointing out that the video was unfair. To most people this was only proof
that Rezo had a valid point and the CDU had nothing to counter.

Another video followed where Rezo and around 70 famous German YouTubers
collectively asked to NOT vote for CDU, CSU, SPD (and right-wing AfD) in the
upcoming EU election as the former three were in charge for the last decades
and were giving a shit about climate change and so on.

As we see on the German results from the EU election this might have
worked/helped. CDU and SPD lost dramatically, the Green party is around the
same level as CDU now. One might argue whether the video really had an impact
or people were just frustrated with the CDU/SPD anyway, but at least it looked
like the video had an impact.

This led to the point that Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer ("AKK"), as head of CDU
and therefore one of the two ruling parties, asked to regulate influencers
during election periods. Obviously this is a huge thing now, as freedom is
speech is ensured by constitutional law in Germany and this suggestion is
highly unconstitutional and an unheard border crossing.

Note beside: Influencers are totally fine for the CDU when they are talking in
favor of the CDU. In 2017 for the federal election campaign they worked
together with some influencers and they really liked it.

AKK was only elected in December 2018 (as the least worse option out of
three!) as head of CDU and was planned as the successor of Angela Merkel.
Seems like those hopes might now be crushed, Bloomberg is speculating if AKK
is being put down from the job after all. [2]

Thought you people might find interesting what's going on in Germany,
especially with a spin on influencers as a job/profession/hobby around the
whole world.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y1lZQsyuSQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y1lZQsyuSQ)

[2] [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-28/merkel-
se...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-28/merkel-sees-
succession-plan-unraveling-because-akk-not-up-to-job)

