Radical ideology - School issues alert over surge of conservative material on Tiktok.
Facing the rising tide of right-wing and extremist content on video sharing platform TikTok, the Anne Frank Educational Center is urging democratic parties to intervene. Right-wing ideologies are presented as cool, warned the center's director, Deborah Schnabel, during a press conference in Frankfurt on Tuesday. This content creates a sense of "us vs. them" and pushes boundaries that can be particularly appealing to younger audiences. Often, accounts affiliated with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party are involved in this.
Eva Berendsen from the educational center emphasized the need for other parties to step up their presence on TikTok. The minimal presence of left-wing political groups gives the impression that the AfD's concerns and fears are more important to young people, who greatly rely on social media for shaping their opinions.
Schnabel stressed that simply creating educational content on TikTok is not enough – young people also want to be respected and touched emotionally. Political communication needs to adapt to these preferences. The pressures for change are only intensifying, she explained, as technology and platforms evolve at an unrelenting pace, facilitated by the widespread use of artificial intelligence.
To address this issue, Schnabel called for a greater emphasis on media literacy and political education within schools. The platforms, including TikTok, must commit to taking serious action against right-wing content, such as the deletion of a swastika formed from emojis that the center had requested.
A report issued by the educational center on Tuesday offered numerous instances of right-wing actors on TikTok. For example, the #Tradwife trend, featuring women dressed in 1950s attire performing traditional household chores, is used to spread right-wing messages, with forbidden SS songs accompaniment.
