As a dragon lord, Rainer Winkler causes a stir on Youtube with provocative statements.
Now his opponents denigrated him online as a Norway assassin.
Altschauerberg / Bayern - Rainer Winkler has over 150,000 followers on YouTube, but many of them are not fans.
The 32-year-old Youtuber from Middle Franconia likes to provoke in his videos and thus provokes strong backlashes.
His opponents don't shy away from insulting him online or even showing up in front of his house in real life.
Now they have wrongly called him the assassin from Norway - some media believed them.
Fake news: Opponents denigrate the dragon lord as a Norway assassin
On Wednesday evening, a man killed several people with a bow and arrow in the Norwegian city of Kongsberg. A 37-year-old Dane confessed to the fact. But before that, a wrong perpetrator name had been ghosted through the network, and isolated media picked up the report. A photo of the alleged perpetrator "Rainer Winklarson" showed a man aiming a bow and arrow at a garage door. The picture shows: The German Youtuber Rainer Winkler alias the "Dragon Lord", who had nothing to do with the act of terrorism. The fake news had targeted opponents in order to harm him. This is not the first time that the "dragon lord" is accused of being responsible for assassinations. Like
Deutsche Welle
reports, he is said to have been mentioned in the network as an alleged assassin of the attacks in Munich.
The example of Rainer Winkler also shows the influence trolls can have on journalistic reporting, warns
DW
.
For years, the 32-year-old has been fighting against attacks on the Internet and sieges in front of his house in real life.
He put his first video online in 2012 and since then has mainly uploaded gaming videos or shaky music videos.
Again and again, however, he deliberately provoked, played down the Holocaust, for example, like
Focus Online
writes.
He can no longer get rid of the ghosts he called: "Rainer Winkler's problem is that he is almost developing into a huge victim," says lawyer Christian Solmecke on YouTube on the subject.
One day the dragon lord was so provoked by his haters that he announced his address.
Since then, people have been traveling regularly to the Altschauerberg district in Emskirchen in Bavaria and trying to provoke the dragon lord.
"The public order office is probably on site several times a week to prohibit the hater demos," continues Solmecke.
Dragon game is called online.
The small town in Middle Franconia issued a general decree.
Larger groups of bystanders are no longer allowed to travel to Altschauerberg, the fine is 1,000 euros.
Where does the hatred of the Dragon Lord come from?
Hate speech on the Internet is a well-known problem for which no solution has yet been found.
Cyberbullying
expert Christian Scherg speaks to
FAZ
in the Winkler case of an escalation that makes the "unleashed hate culture on the Internet" visible. The social psychologist Andreas Zick comes to the conclusion: The hatred is visible on the Internet, but is in people's heads - and has been for a long time. This is reinforced by the “face-free” conversations, ie the anonymity of the network, echo chambers and filter bubbles. We are shown content that confirms our opinion. This can exacerbate hatred on the Internet and lead to dimensions like Rainer Winkler's "anti-fans".
Rainer Winkler is perhaps an isolated case on YouTube in this form, but the hate on the Internet is not. This is what Lars Grässer and Aycha Riffi from the Grimme Institute write in a study about the "Dragon Lord". Companies, institutions and private individuals should ask themselves which communication culture they would like to promote on their side, advise the two researchers. Deleting discriminatory or offensive comments does not restrict freedom of expression, the summary goes on to say. "A consequent and transparent moderation shows the" house rules "of the own offer and applies them - no more and no less", so the study. The scientist Dr. Mai-Thi Nguyen Kim. In the YouTube video "We have to talk" she explains exactly,which house rules will apply to her channel in the future and how she wants to deal with hate speech. It is also reminiscent of Karl Popper's paradox of tolerance.
Unrestricted tolerance necessarily leads to the disappearance of tolerance.
Because if we extend unlimited tolerance even to the intolerant, if we are not ready to defend a tolerant social order against the attacks of intolerance, then the tolerant will be destroyed and tolerance with them
Karl Popper, philosopher
The dragon lord called his haters on the scene with his provocative manner.
The hate spiral started and spilled out of the net into real life.
What Rainer Winkler thinks about the fact that he was traded as an assassin by Norway is still unknown.
The "Dragon Lord" has not yet commented on the false reports.
