Wikimedia Deutschland presents tools for the German federal election

The German federal election 2021 is approaching fast, and with it the question where to look on the internet to find reliable information about the political positions of the individual parties. We present three tools from Wikimedia Deutschland’s universe that make information available about the different parties more easily accessible.

On 26 September, the new Bundestag (the lower house of the German parliament) will be elected in Germany. We are experiencing an intense election campaign, with a lot of information and also falsehoods about the political plans of the respective opposing side circulating at the moment. We present three tools that help users to gain a better overview of the flood of information. 

Follow the Vote: Information about the German federal election 

FollowTheVote wants to present politics in a straightforward, factual & entertaining manner. The app combines political engagement with gamification and primarily targets young people.

Anyone interested in using the app receives a statement of politicians and can compare their own political beliefs with the positions and demands of the political parties – in just five minutes per day. The project is supported by Wikimedia Deutschland’s Accelerator UNLOCK and translates complex topics into plain, accessible language, thereby nurturing the abilities for critical political analysis. The aim is to boost political knowledge, engagement and also voter turnout. All results from FollowTheVote are available under a free licence.

Face the Facts: Know who you vote for

Face the Facts is an app that visualizes all the important details about politicians right at the election campaign posters. This includes political positions, second jobs, how they voted in the past, or controversies. This is an easy way for voters to get an overall picture of a candidate and to quickly identify who comes closest to their own political beliefs.

With the application, users can receive information on their mobile phones by scanning an election campaign poster rather than having to plod through various sources to find information about different candidates. Face the Facts was created as an open source tool in the UNLOCK Accelerator. 

On the project pages of Face the Facts and Follow the Vote, you can find out more about the support provided by the Wikimedia Accelerator UNLOCK.

Digital-o-mat: How digital are the parties?

Open Source in public administration, data retention and digital learning aids and materials – the upcoming German federal election will set the digital policy agenda for the coming years. With the Digital-O-Mat, voters can find out which party is the closest match with their own views on policies for a digital democracy. 

Interested users can initially enter their own position on these statements with just a few clicks. Subsequently, the Digital-O-Mat presents a clear overview of how close a match this position is with the positions of the individual parties. The Digital-O-Mat was developed by Wikimedia Deutschland, AlgorithmWatch, the Bündnis Freie Bildung (alliance for free education), the Chaos Computer Club, the initiative Freifunk and the German Informatics Society.

And for more positions of Wikimedia Deutschland, please take a look at our special election page.