Politicians on TikTok: Olaf doesn't have to dance

White sneakers sneak over slightly stained carpets, accompanied by a classic detective melody with a bassoon. Pan up to a sofa on which a briefcase is standing. In the background, outside the window, you can see the Paul Löbe House and the Berlin TV tower. Pan to the left, there he is sitting at his desk, grinning: Olaf Scholz , Federal Chancellor.

Premiere, long announced, started on Monday: Scholz aka @teambundeskanzler is now also on TikTok .

“In principle, I can only welcome the fact that the head of government has now also recognized the relevance of TikTok for political communication and information and that the platform is no longer ignored,” says political consultant Martin Fuchs. “Unfortunately, much too late.”

For a long time, many politicians from established parties held back on TikTok. There were many reasons for this – for example, the misjudgment that nothing more happens there than dancing, hauls and singing. The fear of boomer cringe. Or concerns about the platform owner’s China connections. Then Correctiv’s research appeared on a secret meeting of right-wing extremists and the public became aware of how widespread the Alternative for Germany (AfD) had long been on the platform. Studies have calculated that their videos get much more attention there than those of all other parties combined. AfD politicians have big accounts on the platform with large followings and have extensive networks.

It almost seemed as if the AfD had been given control of perhaps the most important medium among young people. And this in a year of important elections in Europe and several state parliaments. A campaign called #ReclaimTikTok has been formed in response, with activists trying to use the platform to counter the AfD’s narratives. And now many prominent politicians are flocking to the platform. First it was Karl Lauterbach, now it is Olaf Scholz. Or at least his team.

“Shocked by the reporting, many new politicians have come to the platform,” says Marcus Bösch, who researches TikTok at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW). “But that doesn’t change the fact that the AfD still has a strategic advantage there – because it has been there for a long time and is supported by an army of fans. In my opinion, the others don’t have that.”

The AfD has so much power on TikTok because the platform’s algorithms respond well to their blunt anti-populism and reward them with a lot of reach. Many AfD politicians are good at addressing their audience directly, exaggerating issues beyond recognition and playing hard on the emotional spectrum from anger to envy to fear. This is how you can increase the sharability of your content. Nowhere is this more important than on TikTok, where the platform and algorithms decide what is pushed onto the For You page of 21 million German users.

The question is: Can politics be done on TikTok without populist opinion-making? Can other parties compete there against the AfD? Politicians who differentiate more and want to convey content instead of spreading twisted half-truths?

If you looked at TikTok and saw how some experienced political professionals were struggling there, you could have doubts. Katarina Barley, for example, the SPD’s top candidate in the European election campaign, struts through her TikTok videos in a somewhat wooden manner – and rarely gets through to many people. Lauterbach also made a bold announcement about a revolution and has so far only delivered two videos from the sidelines of a talk show.

But it can also be done quite differently.

White sneakers sneak over slightly stained carpets, accompanied by a classic detective melody with a bassoon. Pan up to a sofa on which a briefcase is standing. In the background, outside the window, you can see the Paul Löbe House and the Berlin TV tower. Pan to the left, there he is sitting at his desk, grinning: Olaf Scholz , Federal Chancellor.

Premiere, long announced, started on Monday: Scholz aka @teambundeskanzler is now also on TikTok .

“In principle, I can only welcome the fact that the head of government has now also recognized the relevance of TikTok for political communication and information and that the platform is no longer ignored,” says political consultant Martin Fuchs. “Unfortunately, much too late.”

SOURCE