WAKE UP! is a youth‑media project launched in 2020 by O₂, a brand of Telefónica Deutschland, in cooperation with the German Association for Voluntary Self‑Regulation of Digital Media Service Providers (Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle Multimedia‑Diensteanbieter) and the school‑outreach agency “Yet another E‑Zine” (YAEZ). Its website offers livestreams, workshops, video lessons and digital white‑board materials on cyberbullying, disinformation and hate speech. Claudia von Bothmer, Telefónica’s head of corporate responsibility, justifies the program by noting that young users often “feel overwhelmed and alone when faced with online threats.” WAKE UP!’s disinformation page warns that false content constitutes a threat to democracy – “disinformation can influence political opinion and voting decisions…and, in the worst case, lead to radical, anti-democratic attitudes” and that it “promotes polarization and division in society.”
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Wake up!
O₂ Telefónica Deutschland
O₂ Telefónica Deutschland...See all
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Voluntary Self-Regulation of Multimedia Service Providers (FSM)...See all
Voluntary Self-Regulation of Multimedia Service Providers (FSM) See less
Commentary:
Framed as media‑literacy work, WAKE UP! adopts official German rhetoric that casts disinformation as a threat to democracy. By linking speech to "radical, anti‑democratic attitudes," the initiative risks treating dissent as a pathology, however well-intentioned it may be. Telefónica, a major telecom operator, thereby positions itself as custodian of permissible discourse while cultivating goodwill with regulators who favor stricter content moderation. FSM’s role as the statutory self‑regulator for large platforms further embeds the project in the government‑industry architecture that polices online expression. The pedagogical veneer thus masks a broader securitizing agenda, whether intended or not, and boosts the idea that political deviation endangers democracy and so must be managed by corporate‑backed education campaigns.
Framed as media‑literacy work, WAKE UP! adopts official German rhetoric that casts disinformation as a threat to democracy. By linking speech to "radical, anti‑democratic attitudes," the initiative risks treating dissent as a pathology, however well-intentioned it may be. Telefónica, a major telecom operator, thereby positions itself as custodian of permissible discourse while cultivating goodwill with regulators who favor stricter content moderation. FSM’s role as the statutory self‑regulator for large platforms further embeds the project in the government‑industry architecture that polices online expression. The pedagogical veneer thus masks a broader securitizing agenda, whether intended or not, and boosts the idea that political deviation endangers democracy and so must be managed by corporate‑backed education campaigns.
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