Two key features emerge from this initial scan.

First, the AfD’s amplifiers seem to be more dedicated. For example, the 50 most active accounts to mention @AfD_Bund posted 6,790 tweets in the two-week period. This was almost double the number of posts from the 50 most active accounts to mention @DieLinke (3,529 tweets). Overall, on average, each @AfD_Bund amplifier posted 4.4 mentions, compared with an average of 2.8 per user for @DieLinke.

This suggests a highly-active core of supporters driving the pro-AfD traffic.

Second, mentions of both sides appear to have been significantly boosted by automated “bot” or semi-automated “cyborg” accounts (a cyborg is an account which appears to post with robotic frequency, but with a high proportion of apparently authored tweets).

However, the accounts which mentioned @DieLinke most appeared to be posting spam tweets mentioning a wide range of political parties, while the amplifiers of @AfD_Bund were more focused.

For example, the account which mentioned @DieLinke most often was called @marcohoffmann67, which posted 658 mentions in two weeks. Despite having tweeted 22,000 times since February 2013, this account only has 44 followers. Its avatar and background are effectively anonymous — typical features of a bot.

Screenshot of profile page for @MarcoHoffmann67. (Source: Twitter.)

Every single one of its tweets in the study period began with a string of official Twitter addresses, including @WhiteHouse and @HouseofCommons, and ended with a string of hashtags. Only a few words in the middle appear to have been authored:

Tweet from @MarcoHoffmann67 on August 22 — note the long string of hashtags and the 35 accounts it replied to. Source: Twitter.

Tweet from @MarcoHoffmann67 on August 22 — note the same hashtags. Source: Twitter.

Tweet from @MarcoHoffmann67 on August 22 — note the same hashtags. Source: Twitter.

However, the tweets included mentions of the CDU and Greens as well as Die Linke, and numerous German media outlets, marking it as a spam poster rather than a single-party activist.

Similarly, the second most active mentioner of @DieLinke was called @DJJEM, which named it 199 times in the two weeks. Its tweets focused on anti-establishment messaging, and tagged a range of different accounts, including the CDU, SPD, and Greens.

“Everywhere the same NATO Empire defamation story against critics of the system.” Post from @DJJEM on August 22. Note the tag of Die Linke and news site ARD. Source: Twitter. The shared post is from Kremlin propaganda outlet RT.

The same post, tagging media including Die Zeit and FAZ. Source: Twitter.

The same post, tagging Die Linke (again) and the SPD. Source: Twitter.

The same post, tagging, among others, the government spokesman (@RegSprecher), CDU and CSU. Source: Twitter.

And the same post, tagging the Greens, SPD and CDU. Source: Twitter.

By contrast, the most active mentioners of @AfD_Bund were much more focused. Thus, @Nanniag (which mentioned @AfD_Bund 225 times in two weeks) is a vocal AfD supporter, advertising the party’s manifesto as its pinned tweet, and routinely amplifying far-right posts. As of August 22, over 90 percent of its most recent tweets were retweets, marking it as a likely cyborg account.

Similarly, @MBremerDE — which was created on August 2 and had, by August 22, posted 4,132 tweets, at an average rate of over 200 per day — predominantly amplified far-right voices and posts, and most of its posts were retweets. Again, given the rate of tweeting, some degree of automation appears probable.

Front page for @MBremerDE. The banner image is the AfD motto. The bio reads, “I love my homeland, am patriotic and conservative — without a migrant background! I support the AfD and the identitarian (i.e. white nationalist) movement! Am a Werder Bremen and 1860 fan!” Note the date of creation and the number of posts. Source: Twitter.

Thus, @AfD_Bund appears to have both a more dedicated following, and more apparently automated accounts amplifying it (by the nature of bots, it is not possible to say who operates them). However, overall, neither the AfD nor Die Linke can be portrayed as a major player on Twitter.

Fringe news accounts

To cross-check this assessment of the German far left and far right as fringe players on Twitter, @DFRLab conducted a further machine scan of news accounts frequently shared by the AfD and Die Linke amplifiers identified in the first scan.

Two accounts were chosen from each end of the spectrum. For the left-wing sample, these were the magazines Neues Deutschland (@ndaktuell) and Junge Welt (@JungeWelt).