Interested in politics on TikTok?

#65

Dear Friends of Democracy,

TikTok is increasingly becoming a political platform. One reason is that the users are not (anymore) as young as many people think. Almost 40 per cent are in their 30s and 40s. 

Some days ago, 100 days before the 2024 European Parliament election, the European Parliament (EP) launched its official TikTok account. Also, the largest political groups in the EP are on TikTok:

• European People’s Party Group (EPP), 

• Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), 

• Renew Europe (previously ALDE), 

• the Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) and

• Identity and Democracy (ID) – This right-wing to far-right political group doesn’t have a TikTok account, but individual members of national parties in the group are very popular on TikTok, like French National Rally leader Jordan Bardella (1.1 million followers, 21.7 million likes) or national parties like Germany’s AfD (407.7 thousand followers, 6.9 million likes).

If you want to delve deeper into politics on TikTok, I recommend Marcus Bösch's Substack's "Understanding TikTok". I learn a lot from him.

✊,

Johannes Eber