this is d.w. news live from berlin europe moves to disrupt the dissent from asian campaigns targeting the upcoming european elections there's been a massive push to get out the vote for the upcoming e.u. parliamentary election but efforts to stop the spread of foreign anti e.u. propaganda may prove too little too late also on the show. president trump signs an executive order which bans business with foreign telecoms believed to pose a national security threat to the directive does not name any company but is

believed to be targeting the chinese tech giant while white. and here in germany a small right wing party takes its message to the streets with marches evoking the nazi years of our local authorities turning a blind eye to. eye brian thomas thanks so much for being with us 28 countries and 400000000 voters people from across europe go to the polls between may 23rd and may 26th to decide who represent them for the next 5 years of the european parliament now here's how it works the number of seats each country gets is roughly proportional to its population europe's most populous country germany of course with nearly 82000000 people getting $96.00 seats now which is the smallest country in europe the. to get

that one in the u.s. malta it will have 6 m. e p's as they're called to represent its population of less than half 1000000 now once elected the members of parliament join transnational groups with similar views at the moment there are 7 such groups representing the far right socialist greens euro skeptics and others the m.e.p. is vote on new laws and they also approve importantly the e.u. budget they also help choose the powerful president of the european commission the current president is this man you'll know him of course claude younger many of you will at least all the favorites to replace him are the german conservative m.e.p. vague and the dutch politician for the moment he's for the party of european socialist now head of the vote the e.u. has made a major push to boo boost turnout already stung by the referendum the bloc also faces growing euro skepticism and there are concerns over online dissin from asian

campaigns trying to confuse voters last year that you commissioned launched a task force to step up its response to foreign anti e.u. content but critics say those efforts may be too little too late whoever you are wherever you are you can get involved the european union institutions have poor enormous resources in to get out the vote campaign but have they invested enough in stay out of the vote efforts in ways to prevent malicious meddling it's not like there was no warning 5 years ago the kremlin's internet research agency in st petersburg was revealed estimated to spend more than a $1000000.00 a month pumping out anti western spin 3 years ago us elections were the target of that russian troll farm yet the european commission waited until just 6 months before the european parliament elections to launch its action plan against this information we should have been doing much more lives. he spent 3 years in the

european commission's struck on task force a communications unit created in 2015 to counter russian efforts to smear the e.u. now with an independent think tank kalinski says brussels is way behind expecting that we will solve the problem in the last 2 months before the elections or even in the last month of the elections when the russians have been working on it for the past 5 years i think it's very naive facebook google and twitter have a role in the commission's plan pressed to better verify users' identities and remove fake accounts faster and to make clear who's paying for advertising and content facebook has just opened its own war room in dublin to target in authentic activity ahead of elections let's go in or from the e use external action service says there has been progress it's not as much as we would have liked to but we have seen in terms of transparency things are really moving and i think the platforms understood that they also need to take a much closer look at what is happening there but not everyone is counting on

bureaucrats and big tech to lead the battle out in the quiet flemish countryside is what you might call an antique troll farm with a staff of one. martin. insight martin shank debunks false online stories on his own website lead stories dot com and also as part of fact check e.u. a collaboration of european media outlets working to keep the record straight ahead of the elections anything that looks suspicious take a closer look at the. smells funny. especially the kind of story that makes people angry or upset or. confirms people in their bias like i knew muslims this or a new throne but that after she brands speak content with a big red banner on his website he also formally notifies facebook which immediately reduces the items visibility in its news feeds shank is convinced even

small doses of dissent from asian can be dangerous for democracy if you can swing a few 100 foods in a certain district or in a certain state. that might tip the balance and you cannot make this coalition or that coalition because one seat has moved so it will undoubtedly have an influence with so much at stake across $28.00 countries experts say we're likely to see intense just information campaigns right up until the final votes are cast. let's bring in the correspond now put that report together for us terry schultz good morning terry terry can you tell us what's what's the kremlin's and game in this what does it want to achieve with this information campaign. what the kremlin wants is for voters to be confused it doesn't necessarily need to convince them of anything in particular simply to make them doubt their leaders doubt their media

doubt each other even to not know exactly what their future might hold and in that situation the kremlin thinks perhaps they'll be more likely to install authoritarian leaders who are say they'll keep them safe and maybe more amenable to the kind of tactics that moscow likes and remember it at e.u. level it only takes one vote in many cases to block things like sanctions or energy projects so as martin shank explained i mean sometimes all you need is a few 100 votes this way or that way to make a really big difference but to be fair it's not only moscow doing this i'm big big hacking campaigns have been traced back to iran to china to north korea and of course extremists in europe and the united states are all using exactly the same playbook it's just that we happen to know perhaps the most about the russian efforts because they were so successful in the 2016 us election and in the exit campaign as well ok terry your report points to the powerful internet players facebook and google being enlisted in the effort to prevent

a foreign political meddling but there are plenty of reasons to ask of silicon valley corporations of the right partners or europe to help protect the integrity of its elections. sure there's a lot of discomfort about who would decide what stays up and what's gets taken down what's a lie and what's the truth and nobody really wants google or facebook to be making that kind of decision about political content but you cannot do this without them and that has certainly been proven by the fact that there are millions and millions of fake accounts floating out there who are reaching just untold numbers of of voters and so what has been done is that the big platforms the social media giants have signed a code of conduct with the european commission that says they're going to be more proactive about taking down fake content about making sure they know who paid for ads who paid for articles and importantly there they need to change the way they put fake stories in their algorithm so if you've got a fact checker saying that they've proven a story is false then facebook in working with some of these consortiums will then

drop that story down so it makes it more difficult for people to see the fake content and make it go viral and hopefully that's having an impact for us from brussels thanks so much terry for your report for coming in this morning in checking out all this for us. it's to the us now or president trump a signed an executive order declaring a national economic emergency giving the government extensive powers to approve the activities of foreign telecom corporations the white house says the measure is not directed at any specific country or company but the move is widely interpreted as ratcheting up the pressure on the chinese firm while way it's also being seen as a new salvo in the ongoing u.s. trade dispute with china. the u.s. government has long viewed the chinese company as an espionage threat and has sought to keep while way from playing a major role on the u.s. telecommunications infrastructure market. this new move is likely to prevent it

from supplying the equipment being used to set up cutting edge 5 g. networks donald trump's decision has come at a key moment in negotiations with the chinese government about future trade relations between the countries we're having a little wobble with china because we've been treated very unfairly for many many decades for actually a long time and yet have been handled a long time ago and it was handle it now i think it's going to be think it's going to turn out it really well we're in a very strong position we are the piggy bank that everybody likes to take advantage of or take from and we can't let that happen anymore the executive order makes it easier for the u.s. government to directly regulate foreign telecoms which could theoretically exploit back doors and systems to pose a threat to communications and national security in addition the u.s. is plays to our way and 7 the associated companies on

a blacklist firms on it have to be granted licenses from the u.s. commerce department to use components made by u.s. firms in their technology the restrictions will come into force in the next few days. then soon from business desk is your talk more about this good morning ben does this mean that all u.s. communication technology will now be coming from domestic american providers this is trump strategy america 1st and it's working to a certain degree. while the way though is very important to the regional markets to local operate is the big ones have already cut ties with way in line with what mr trump wants but it could be a setback for the 5 g. network in total a lot of these local operators as i said use switches and gear from far away from said he as well and wow way at the end of the day is the leader in this technology it can make it faster it's more innovative it can do it cheaper but it also works

a little sloppy it than the rest it's not as precise as say as we sent in your info and this is the worry he had not that it may have links to the state but that it could leave gaps in its hardware if the hackers to infiltrate ok so this also heard some american companies that rely on while way particularly ok now how much of a setback is this for awhile way and its push to become a major player in the global telecoms market ok this is interesting because in the us that it's us business is only a fraction of its global business as i said it's the leader it's a huge company also with hands that it's not so much in america but elsewhere in the world. this will be a setback for a while way in that it relies on mary many american suppliers for pots within its way that's the tricky part where working in a globalized world and all these companies as so into link and have been for years have been for years now and that's something that's difficult to on ravel look at

the timing of this move as well if it comes at a critical juncture in the trade talks with beijing right now a very important i mean we saw this already with trump and at sea which i mentioned the other manufacturer which is sort of big in. in china and in the world trump stepped back when he banned said he insulted the company was about to flop basically because it so much. and that was overturned and here we come again with this band not directed at any certain company but obviously at wild way he according to analysts ok now now the term for an ever search is very interesting as well we don't know who that is exactly but the tension could be european country companies in the future as well i don't know it's difficult as difficult to say who this can be applied to exactly exactly and it's a really tricky situation and hard to gauge exactly what the trumps what term strategy is here and how this is going to pan out because there are so many

buggering chips that he does have and that he is effectively using i mean his strategy isn't bad if you talk to many adolescents and he's actually getting some way on china or the way china does business because the way china does business is unfair with the rest of the well we're talking about state capitalism versus regular capitalism and ben thanks very much for coming in on this as a preview now some of the other stories making news today so dance traditional transitional rather military council has announced that it's suspended talks with protesters on civilian rule after clashes erupt in the capital khartoum the military council saying the suspension would last $72.00 hours set out a number of conditions for negotiations resume putting the dismantling of the barricades arrested by protesters. the saudi led coalition in yemen has launched airstrikes on the rebel held capital sana residents say this french

targeted 9 military locations in and around the city this comes 2 days after insurgents claimed responsibility for drone attacks on 2 saudi oil pumping stations . protesters have clashed with police in rio de janeiro after a day of demonstrations against government budget cuts it ministration a far right present higher also r.-o. as outskirts of over one and a half 1000000000 euros to the country's public education system mainly a fact universal's. oyur in germany a small radical right wing party is trying to boost its draw with margins a vote in the country's past called the depth of a gore 3rd path its running candidates for european parliamentary elections or reporter with cause i went to the east german town of plowing and talk to members of this extremist organization amidst the growing calls for it to be bad. this is plough and in eastern germany and the office of the toilet of the political party

the 3rd path they offer used clothing to germans only and portray themselves as a party of the people the german people the neo nazi party also offers information on their ideals they want to see the german borders go back to where they were before the 2nd world war and cut right through the middle of poland they say german women should have more children and immigration should be stopped by the honest and my ideal germany is a land where politicians have the final say they should always shock 1st in the interest of germans we support the borders being firmly closed and we believe this foreign infiltration cannot continues just off to a slight look in. again and again the 3rd path has marched through plow and most recently at the beginning of may there marches show clear parallels to hitler's 3rd reich torches flags drums strict marching all reminiscent of the nazi dictatorship

. the neo nazi party has a polarized the people of plough and. they were allowed to carry torches to our uniforms. it was creepy i find it a bit frightening is in some of their ideas are impeccable. strikers as it's horrible that they've set up base here and even worse that people indulge them. but . whether groups are allowed to demonstrate here is up to the local district office if demonstrators wear uniforms or if there is the threat of violence then a rally can be banned authorities here have yet to ban any activities the district office says the right wing demonstration was not violent or intimidating and they were powerless to stop it from taking place there were no grounds to ban it. east german authorities have often been accused of not using the full extent of the law against right wing groups many say they play down the threat they pose or turn a blind eye the marches are repeatedly allowed as good as it is about rights under

the rule of law i think it's important for the playing field is extended as far as possible for sometimes i would like to see more courage from authority is much money and would often for the most. political scientists focus says just restricting the neo nazi demonstrations is not enough he's calling for a complete ban of the organization. is hard to avoid even though they are a small group i think they need to be bad because they audiology and they orientation is fundamentally the same as national socialism reasons and he's but a party that still far off the legal requirements for that are high in germany that means the 3rd path party is able to contest the upcoming european elections. so let's talk more about the south our political correspondent richard involved good morning morning are there moves to ban this party right now all this clearly is an unconstitutional party following unconstitutional goals though police say they want

to overthrow the system or to as we have heard already and in the report the thresholds to a political party in germany is extremely. hi the 2 last times we have seen to a new right wing extremist group that was the n.p.t. then they have been both rebuffed by the german constitution because you do tional course quote thank you very much they said well these parties even if they are on consume know they have to pose a real threat to society they really have to pose a threat to overthrow the system and these parties are just too small and the entity was much bigger they were even 3 presented in parliament and this party the 3rd party is not even represented in any parliament it ok it's not represented in any parliament yet but what kind of a political force is the 3rd path and other parties like it right now well it is not really a political force in the means that they really have the chance to gain any

influence in parliament certainly do they the chances of them to be successful in the european election right now. are more or less by 0 but that's not the idea of this party the party for them is a protective shell these are groups neo nazi groups which in the past able to be back to that was very easy a normal group can be bound by the authorities but by no means in the end. by forming a party they get this protective shell by the constitution and then it gets very very hard and that's what they really want to they now they are they have the possibility to post their goals in public and that's the actual impact of the as we saw there very present in public is that mainly in rural eastern germany where there is this a national it is a national phenomenon you can find neo nazis everywhere in germany not only in the film socially east but the film socialist east has proved to be a quite

a football ground for for these parties or for right wing beliefs and we can only speculate by this is like this. house it is during the past 2530 years. the people there have been connected to democracy and the way as the people who out the people in the democratic west and right big. believes are considered to be normal opinions that and i think that's part of the problem you know parties on the left claimed that there's a relationship between groups and extremist parties like the 3rd way with the immigration right wing alternative for germany the if day that's something the alternative for germany turn it of germany vehemently denies and it's necessary to go to separate themselves for political survival isn't it absolutely but but but is there any connection or as you said did nice any connections to any extremist groups and that they even have some version resolutions saying it is not possible

for anyone who has been in an extremist group to be a member of the a of d. foot what but is also evident is that there are some ties between the a of d. put a titian's and some right wing extremist groups as we have seen last year in chemists in candidates off them on board stuck to death allegedly by foreigners and refugees big protests broke out protests which will lead by right big right wingers and a v politicize have been among them have been leading these protests ok richard thanks very much for that review devolved bring us up to date on the story that's you know we're turning now to paris where the leaders of france and new zealand have been holding a special summit on how to halt the spread of violent terrorist content online the meaning comes in response to the christchurch attacks which were live streamed on facebook. when the right wing extremist in new zealand shot and killed 51 people in 2 mosques in christ church he live streamed the act on facebook. the

footage went viral. now a new zealand's prime minister just in the are done and french president and manuel work from taking a stand against hatred and violence online the end of the christ church call for action is to prevent the spread of extremist content on social media. what happened in christ church was not merely an unacceptable abject terrorist attack it was a transformation of the internet into a full on propaganda machine that aims to destroy any form of cohesion in our societies but it's a crisis which called action an action plan for change it's a global response to a trade you did it. on the shores of my country but we're also met liefeld around the world fundamentally it ultimately commits assault to build a more humane internet. which cannot be misused by terrorists for their hateful

pisses earlier facebook founder mark zuckerberg announced new restrictions for the online platform if users break certain rules they will be blocked from transmitting live material in addition a research project aims to improve the analysis of images which is especially important in recognising videos with terror related or other violence content if these measures had already been in place the perpetrator would not have been able to broadcast it live participants say this is only a starting point they want to gainst overly optimistic expectations of the christ church call. we have sports now and every year the german football world selects a coach whose social broad has made a contribution to the positive image of germany their name the german football ambassador this award comes with a cash prize that's given to the project of their choice this year's winner the report coach. a crowd of football luminaries gathered at the foreign ministry in

berlin all to congratulate germany's football ambassador for 29 tain yogen klopp the former dormant and current liverpool coach could not attend the ceremony but sent his thanks for a video message. thank you for the prize. i'm proud to be german proud to be european and i'm enjoying living here and england. club is busy preparing his little pool side for the champions league final exploits on the field as well as off the field sealed the decision for the panel. in england i told people that germans are not only punctual but also funny sometimes that this sends out with this honor i didn't expect it but i'm happy nevertheless. thank you once again and don't do anything i wouldn't do. then schuster was also awarded an honorary prize for his role as both a player and coach across

a career spanning more than 40 years which included spells with spanish joints around madrid and barcelona. it makes me proud it makes me happy many years have passed in my job as a footballer and coach so to receive this recognition is great. sent his gratings from barcelona he won a fan award given to active players. one of europe's most famous landmarks has been celebrated overnight festivities where else but in the city of light paris put on a dazzling show to mark the eiffel towers 130th birthday monument both were 189 world's fair was supposed to be torn down after was all over but it remained the world's tallest building until the $1930.00 s. . a scary reminder now of our top story this hour campaigning has entered its final stretch for the e.u.

parliamentary elections are set to begin next week but there's a growing concerns that the block is unprepared for foreign disinformation campaigns aimed at discouraging voting. you live from berlin next stop is focus on europe this week a special devoted to european parliamentary elections i'm brian thomas for the entire team thanks for being here.

standing up so orman. a small town mayor of hungary. he's for a progressive society. welcoming minorities and fighting corruption. amanda was proud to call himself a european. next. plus

90 the new channel for an independent view on current affairs in turkey. the latest developments accurate analysis. with comprehensive background. for someone and political and social topics considered from different perspectives . we cover the issues that move turkey on a unique platform for information. plus 90 connect to an unbiased agenda subscribed now on you tube. every journey begins with the 1st step and every language the 1st word. the

coke is in germany to germany. why not learn with him credit. in simple mind on your mobile and free. learning course. german made easy. $28.00 nations joined in one union and strasburg is the seat of that parliament welcome to a special edition of focus on europe with me peter craven and just days to go now to elections to the parliament with the euro skeptic even and european parties in the ascendancy in many parts of the concert.