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TikTok likely helped far right in German elections: analysts (www.dw.com)

submitted 2 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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The AfD was twice as effective at reaching first-time voters on the app than all other parties combined, according to an analysis of platform data. This may explain why the party performed so well among young voters.

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[-] Hubi@feddit.org 59 points 2 months ago

Unfortunately true for a lot of European countries. It's easy to post a 20 second video about "foreigners bad" and kids with the attention span of a gnat will eat it right up. A longer video that explains why things really are the way they are will get swallowed by the algorithm. It just amplifies populism and outrage and will be one of the great hurdles to overcome this century.

[-] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 32 points 2 months ago

Honestly I think we're thoroughly fucked at this point

[-] MoogleMaestro@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 months ago

We could force control of Tik Tok's algorithm to be managed by a United States entity. You know, basically what China does to US businesses who want to sell product in China.

If they don't want that, they could let Google serve wikipedia articles about Tienanmen Square again lol.

[-] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 32 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I'm not entirely convinced putting the US in charge of it would make things any better. It's not like eg. Facebook or Twitter aren't full of reich wing bullshit on purpose

[-] MoogleMaestro@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 months ago

It's a fair point. Frankly, considering where I am, I think America's social media should really be forced to engage with some kind of open federation standard (doesn't have to be activity pub) as I think it better reflects how the United States itself is designed as a republic. That feels like a long shot, but it's the dream.

[-] tired_n_bored@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

We could just ban personalized algorithms altogether

[-] emax_gomax@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

Is China tailoring the content to politics or are political influencers just better at pandering to people with blatant lies. Either way tiktok and other social networks should have more controls in place to filter misinformation but I'm curious if the affect is intentional or incidental.

[-] MoogleMaestro@lemmy.zip 10 points 2 months ago

Is China tailoring the content to politics or are political influencers just better at pandering...

It's hard to say without proof so I won't pretend to know the answer. What I do know is that, if the roles were reversed, China would 100% believe that any movement that caused chaos within the country was somehow orchestrated by the United States as that's what they've done in the past. So, until we have a hospitable relationship where the countries see eye to eye on any social issues, it really doesn't make sense for either control to have the keys to a popular social media network in the other -- if you get my drift. I will also say that promotional programs of games and movies from China, like the recent Wukong controversy, highlights that China very much believes in pushing their political narrative to the degree that it would be hard to imagine them not using it with a widely popular social media network like Tik Tok.

This is where federation is smart though -- the content is dispersed enough that the idea of removing a server is less daunting and there are fewer entities that are too big to fail.

[-] PugJesus@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

If it's any consolation

But that battle is a tough one for Republicans, given Gen Z voters overwhelmingly supported Democrats over Republicans in the midterms by 27 points — and prioritized protecting abortion access by a higher amount than any other generation, according to SocialSphere's survey data.

I suspect the kids, as a whole, are alright. Not that we shouldn't take this seriously, but we don't have to start planning our funerals yet.

[-] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 months ago

Hmm, I wonder if Gen Z's politics are different over there compared to here, because at least in Finland the 2. most popular parties they voted for were a right wing extremist party and a "fiscally conservative" party that is essentially indistinguishable from the extremist one (the joke is that the way to tell them apart is that the "fiscal conservatives" wear more expensive suits.) Sure, many do also vote for eg. the Left Alliance who are democratic socialists, but on the whole the generation is more conservative than the older ones

[-] PugJesus@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Not sure, but I can say from personal experience here that, while right-wing parties are less popular amongst Gen Z, the right-wingers that are in Gen Z tend to be very political, not just casually political, and more extreme than your average Joe Schmoe conservative. Might be a contributor.

[-] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Yeah it's the same here, they and the younger gens have apparently gotten very polarized; the ones who are "good eggs" are really decent folks, and the shitty ones are really shitty.

So while the extremist reich wing party PS (Perussuomalaiset or "Finns Party", because naturally only a nationalist wank is a real Finn) was their most popular party, as a proportion of their cohorts more young people voted for the Left Alliance than older ones did. Here's a handy table from our 2023 parliamentary elections (source):

KOK: National Coalition Party, fiscally conservative
PS: Finns Party, extremist right wing
SDP: Social Democrat, liberal / marginally left
KESK: Centre Party, what it says on the tin
VAS: Left Alliance, democratic socialists
VIHR: Green League, liberal & green
SFP: Swedish People's Party, right wing
KD: Christian Democrats, nearly as bad as PS
LIIK: Movement Now, nominally center right but about as right wing as KOK

Actually based on that study the claim that gen Z is more conservative than older gens doesn't seem to hold up. Seems like they're about as conservative, but also more likely to vote Left

[-] addictedtochaos@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

it has been shown:

the more crisis in a society, the more pressure you need to keep it under control, the more extreme the outer fringes get. It is always this way.

[-] Hubi@feddit.org 2 points 2 months ago

For a couple of generations at the very least, yeah.

[-] addictedtochaos@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

we were before. we have reached the part: "divide and rule".

[-] addictedtochaos@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

thats the same for adults. makes no difference.

this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2024

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