The AfD was therefore able to reach young people between 18 and 24 more easily than the other parties. The AfD has more followers on Tiktok, more politicians who are active on the platform and, in addition, the political message of the AfD was spread by relatively many more accounts than the political message of the other parties.
Profiles of young people created for the study received in their Tiktok-feed average of 9.2 videos per week with AfD themes or tags. BSW and CDU followed in second place, on average the profiles received 1.1 video per week in their feed with a reference to one of these two parties. The other parties followed at a distance.
Roland Verwiebe of the University of Potsdam, who coordinated the study, calls the results alarming. According to him, this study shows that the AfD has reached many young people relatively easily. Interest in political content was not explicitly indicated in the profiles. Verwiebe attributes the greater reach of the AfD content to the algorithm of Tiktok. According to him, moderate parties are disadvantaged by the platform. Read more at the University of Potsdam or in the liveblog from Tagesschau
Read more on Germanyweb about the election results in Thuringia and Saxony
