Berliners will vote in state and district elections on September 20. In the days leading up to the vote, a video circulated on social media that allegedly shows a man opening postal voting envelopes and destroying ballots cast for the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD).
DW Fact check reviewed more than a dozen posts sharing the footage. The posts use similar captions, presenting the video as evidence of election fraud in Germany. Several have amassed hundreds of thousands of views on X.
How widely has the video spread? And is its reach driven by genuine public interest? Or is something else boosting its visibility? DW Fact check investigated the video and the accounts sharing it.
Claim: A video shows a man destroying AfD ballots in Berlin with a carpet knife.
One post sharing the footage claims:
"A video circulating in Berlin shows a man opening mail-in voting envelopes and destroying ballots marked for the AfD, while ballots for Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU are left intact. The footage appeared days after the AfD's landslide victory in Saxony-Anhalt. Berlin holds its state election on September 20."
The post had received about 327,000 views when DW Fact Check reviewed it on September 18.
DW Fact check: False
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