TikTok facilitated the promotion of Germany’s far-right extremist political party to young voters ahead of last month’s EU elections, according to a new report by AI Forensics and Interface. This report, shared exclusively with WIRED, reveals that in a quarter of cases, young users searching for specific political parties on TikTok were instead given suggestions linked to the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the nation’s leading far-right party.
It is well known that the AfD has leveraged TikTok to disseminate extremism and disinformation to a younger audience. However, the new findings suggest that the TikTok algorithm itself aided in promoting the AfD. Before publication, TikTok was provided with the final report, to which it did not dispute the findings but noted that some AfD-linked accounts had been made ineligible for search recommendations due to content violations.
“For regular search, you will see AfD popping up more often because the AfD is more present on TikTok, but for search suggestions, there’s also an algorithmic aspect where someone makes the decision to relate these searches,” said Martin Degeling from Interface. “You search for the Green Party, and the AfD pops up, you search for the CDU and the AfD pops up, but you search for AfD, no other party pops up,” he added.
The report does not suggest active collaboration between TikTok and far-right parties like the AfD. Instead, it highlights how TikTok’s structure creates opportunities for such actors to flourish. “TikTok’s built-in features such as the ‘Others Searched For’ suggestions provide a poorly moderated space where the far-right, especially the AfD, is able to take advantage,” explained Miazia Schüler from AI Forensics. According to Salvatore Romano, head of research at AI Forensics, their findings also indicate that problematic content was shown across other EU countries, including France, Poland, and Italy.
TikTok has stated that it put in place country-specific tools to combat misinformation during the EU elections.