How to fight right-wing populism on social media
#58
Dear Friends of Democracy,
I sensed the direction, but I wasn't aware of the dimension: The partly right-wing extremist party "Alternative for Germany" (short: AfD) is far ahead of all other parties in Germany in terms of reach on social media.
Especially on Tiktok.
There, AfD videos are viewed three times as often as the videos of all other German parties combined (see chart above).
It's even worse.
"In fact, the AfD's lead over the other parties is likely to be significantly larger. Because hardly any other party relies on a network of supporter accounts that put party content into their own videos and distribute it with sensational titles," writes the German public television ZDF.
Things look similarly depressing on Facebook and YouTube, the report says.
The broadcaster got the alarming numbers (here in German) from political and communications consultant Johannes Hillje. "The AfD is a digital propaganda party. It doesn't want to complement journalism, but rather replace it", he says.
What to do about it?
Lawmakers must make the social networks more committed to fighting fake news.
The democratic forces and established media must do better to reach people on digital platforms.
We need better media literacy among citizens.
That's how Hillje puts it: "Everyone has to be their own editor-in-chief on the digital platforms."
✊,
Johannes Eber