German Satirical Party 'Takes Over Power' in AfD Secret Facebook Groups

German satirical party Die PARTEI (The PARTY) has taken control of dozens of secret groups of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on Facebook.

The contents were made public in order to show how computer bots regularly published right-wing propaganda in these groups and were literally running the election campaign.

Shortly before the election, the AfD lost its influence on many Facebook groups, through which its committed followers often exchanged secret information.

Members of Germany's satirical party Die PARTEI have managed to become administrators of the groups by pretending to be AfD fans for several months. On Sunday, they kicked other administrators out of the groups and made them public.

"My team and I infiltrated the groups 11 months ago, now we are taking over the power," comedian and a satirical party member, Shahak Shapira, said in a video, which was published on all the Facebook groups on Sunday.

Die PARTEI differs from any other political party. On the one hand, it is legally registered a small party. On the other, it is a satire product whose main goal is to make fun of politics and show the dark side of how political business works.

The members of the party took over AfD groups with a total membership of 180,000 people. They made the groups public in order to show how right-wing propaganda works.

For instance, it turns out that the groups were created by an AfD member, but the right-wing propaganda on the timelines was regularly published by computer bots.

The Facebook groups have now been turned into fan groups for DIE PARTEI.