Komet Posted July 17 Posted July 17 Young Germans searching TikTok for parties and candidates were disproportionately served content related to the the far-right Alternative for Germany, says a new report shared exclusively with WIRED. https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-german-voters-afd/ TikTok helped promote Germany's far-right extremist political party to young voters ahead of last month's EU elections, even when they were searching the app for other political parties or politicians, according to a new report shared exclusively with WIRED. The report was written by researchers from the nonprofit organization AI Forensics and Interface, a European think tank specializing in information technology. Researchers found that in a quarter of cases, young users in Germany searching on the app for specific political parties and their politicians in the weeks leading up to the vote on June 5 were instead given suggestions for other parties. In the majority of these cases, they were given suggestions linked to Alternative for Germany (AfD), Germany's leading far-right party. It is already well documented that the AfD has successfully leveraged TikTok to spread extremism and disinformation to a younger audience, but the new research suggests that the far-right group, which was labeled "extremist" by a German court earlier this year, was aided by the TikTok algorithm itself. TikTok, which was provided with a copy of the final report ahead of publication, didn't dispute the research findings but said that it has, in the past, made some accounts linked to the AfD ineligible for search recommendations as a result of content violations. "For the regular search, you will see AfD popping up more often, because the AfD is more present on TikTok, but for the search suggestions there's also this algorithmic aspect where someone makes the decision to relate these two searches," Martin Degeling, who tracks AI-based recommendation systems at Interface, tells WIRED. "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." The researchers say that their findings prove no active collaboration between TikTok and far-right parties like the AfD but that the platform's structure gives bad actors an opportunity to flourish. "TikTok's built-in features such as the 'Others Searched For' suggestions provides a poorly moderated space where the far-right, especially the AfD, is able to take advantage," Miazia Schüler, a researcher with AI Forensics, tells WIRED. "During elections, TikTok is not giving equal visibility to all the parties, and it's basically incentivized to create suggestions that are not based on the content inside the app," says Salvatore Romano, head of research at AI Forensics, adding that further research the group has conducted in France, Poland, Italy, and other EU countries found that "similarly problematic content was being shown across countries." When searching for content related to the Greens, a political party in Germany, the TikTok search suggestions included "Habeck's wife leaves," which is a reference to the leader of the Green Party and German vice chancellor Robert Habeck. The suggestion was included even though there is no substance to the claim and no related videos to be found on TikTok. "The suggestion insinuates a gossip-like curiosity based on a spread of false information for the sake of a seemingly newsworthy headline that has little political implications," the researchers wrote in the report. TikTok did not respond to how or why these search terms were suggested. Other examples include the promotion of random clickbait-style search suggestions such as "bisexual princess" when searching for the Social Democratic Party or fear-mongering suggestions like "Putin's last warning" when searching for the Greens. Research shows that even if users don't click on any of the search suggestions in the app, simply seeing the suggestions is enough to make the terms stick in people's brains, and the more extreme the suggestions the more likely they are to remember. The researchers did find that TikTok had taken some steps to limit the spread of inaccurate or incendiary search results for certain parties or politicians, but the moderation efforts were not applied consistently across the platform. The researchers also said their findings appear to show that TikTok was employing a "blocklist," because one in three search terms used for TK?! returned nothing in the "Others searched for" box. These terms spanned the political spectrum from the AfD to the left-wing Free Democratic Party and Greens. TikTok told WIRED that it was "inaccurate to assume" TikTok used a blocklist but did not immediately respond to a follow-up question about how it chose which search terms returned blank results. "If there is a moderation policy in place, it's not consistent," says Romano. Surprised? 1
Reginald Posted July 17 Posted July 17 16 minutes ago, Komet said: Surprised? No. Social media is full of extremist propaganda and destabilizing psyops, it's been stated many times by our governments. Some people don't want to believe what's right in front of their eyes, though. 6
Nico Robin Posted July 17 Posted July 17 Yes I noticed that there was kinda an euqal ammount of AFD (right wing party) content and leftist content
Virgos Groove Posted July 17 Posted July 17 (edited) Is anybody shocked? The Hitlerite particles on TikTok have been off the scale for a while now. Edited July 17 by Virgos Groove
Thin White Duke Posted July 17 Posted July 17 If you're searching for political information and news on tik tok of all places, yeah, you're dumb, I'm sorry. 8
Illyboy Posted July 17 Posted July 17 wbk TikTok is ****, now we have scientific papers to prove it! yay.
Uncatena Posted July 17 Posted July 17 3 minutes ago, Thin White Duke said: If you're searching for political information and news on tik tok of all places, yeah, you're dumb, I'm sorry. How do you miss the point THIS badly ugh 4
Bosque Posted July 17 Posted July 17 Wbk, the TikTok algorithm is very clearly designed to subtly spread propaganda, controversial and divisive messages. Of course most people on this forum had no problem with it when false and damaging information was pushed by TikTok that aligned with the narratives of the far-left 3 1 2
Illyboy Posted July 17 Posted July 17 ngl I never installed Tik Tok (or Musical.ly back when it was called like that) so I don't even know how it works, though my dad is often on it and I sometimes overhear stuff (bc he doesn't use headphones) that makes me remember that "bombastic side eye, criminal offensive side eye" clip, thus I'm not one bit surprised about this. I mean back when I did use Instagram it was not that hard to find extremist stuff (in many cases simply "edgy memes" would do) so am I surprised at social media algorithms in general being scummy? no ngl if you're still on social media in Lord's year 2024... like, just don't. If I want social interaction I can just go on Discord (or any other messaging thingies like Revolt/Telegram/etc rly), memes? discord and youtube got me covered (if I want floptok memes there's 30-minute compilation videos on it anyways so why would I bother getting tt) 1
cOe Posted July 17 Posted July 17 With the algorithm, the media just works to actively kill braincells at this point
NEX Posted July 17 Posted July 17 This is what tiktok is designed to do (by China). Serve dumbass "funny/entertaining" videos to disarm a person's brain and then occasionally serve a well disguised propaganda video to slowly but surely implant desired information and change their views. When I started using I noticed a frequent anti American government video. It wasn't very direct, only slightly so, either by making fun of politicians or the system or something else, but it was surely noticeable (to me at least). I immediately wondered how this app wasn't banned in America and Europe yet. The people in power are too old to understand these new technology tools and that's why they are too slow to react to these new threats. TikTok has done enormous damage to the western society and to people's brains in general. So no, I'm not surprised 3
Itz_Dani! Posted July 17 Posted July 17 Do y'all not know how algorithms work? Of course if someone is going to search for something specific, in this case, someone searching for content related to a political party of course that's what's that person will get in their for you page. 1 2
ChrispyBelievix Posted July 17 Posted July 17 pretends to be shocked everytime I download the app here and start fresh / without an algorythm, it's always full of AFD propaganda videos or live talks... And Im pretty sure my extended algorythm/browse history is not the reason for that...
Rev8 Posted July 17 Posted July 17 And the dirty tricks by the right-side, continues gosh I hate that leftists dont do anything to fight back.. 1
Communion Posted July 17 Posted July 17 20 minutes ago, Itz_Dani! said: Do y'all not know how algorithms work? Of course if someone is going to search for something specific, in this case, someone searching for content related to a political party of course that's what's that person will get in their for you page. This. It's not "TikTok is made to serve propaganda". It's called a feedback loop. You search content and then you will be delivered more of.that content. It amplifies general sentiments that already exist. So in a conservative country like Germany, conservative users will end up populating and perpetuating more of that content, feeding it back into the algorithm as consumption and keeping it high on your recommended. Most apps do this. I send my mom a cat video on Instagram and now my feed is largely cat videos. TikTok just does this extremely well plus the swipe up for new content mechanism is particularly pleasing and let's you consume more content quickly. In countries like America where the user base is largely pro-Palestine, you'll end up getting recommended more pro-Palestine videos. In contrast, from what I've seen of TikTok in Israel, young Israelis have basically locked themselves in a hasbara pro-genocide feedback loop that will take decades of forced re-education to fix. But TikTok hasn't created that out of thin air as part of some Chinese scheme. That's just part of Israeli culture. Like how far-right sympathies are part of German youth culture. People blame conspiracy when they don't like a piece of technology accidentally acting as a mirror and reflecting back to them their society's values. 4
Communion Posted July 17 Posted July 17 3 minutes ago, Rev8 said: And the dirty tricks by the right-side, continues gosh I hate that leftists dont do anything to fight back.. TikTok is literally the most prominent platform leftist activism is being built on, so much so the US is literally trying to ban it due to anti-Israel sentiment on the app growing to the point of intervening within national politics. 2
ICLDXU4HS Posted July 17 Posted July 17 It's not like SPD or the Greens would be able to create content anyone would enjoy watching or engaging with. I got plenty of nice content from Mera25, Volt and BSW.
Komet Posted July 17 Author Posted July 17 1 hour ago, Itz_Dani! said: Do y'all not know how algorithms work? Of course if someone is going to search for something specific, in this case, someone searching for content related to a political party of course that's what's that person will get in their for you page. 34 minutes ago, Communion said: This. It's not "TikTok is made to serve propaganda". It's called a feedback loop. You search content and then you will be delivered more of.that content. I know basic reading comprehension is becoming increasingly rare skill to come across, but this is literally addressed in the article. "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." "During elections, TikTok is not giving equal visibility to all the parties, and it's basically incentivized to create suggestions that are not based on the content inside the app," says Salvatore Romano, head of research at AI Forensics, adding that further research the group has conducted in France, Poland, Italy, and other EU countries found that "similarly problematic content was being shown across countries." I'd suggest reading the article before commenting next time. Love the insinuation that the two IT organizations dedicated to algorithms specifically don't know how algorithms works. You tell them, ATRL users! 1
Communion Posted July 17 Posted July 17 (edited) 7 minutes ago, Komet said: I know basic reading comprehension is becoming increasingly rare skill to come across, but this is literally addressed in the article. "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." "During elections, TikTok is not giving equal visibility to all the parties, and it's basically incentivized to create suggestions that are not based on the content inside the app," says Salvatore Romano, head of research at AI Forensics, adding that further research the group has conducted in France, Poland, Italy, and other EU countries found that "similarly problematic content was being shown across countries." I'd suggest reading the article before commenting next time. Love the insinuation that the two IT organizations dedicated to algorithms specifically don't know how algorithms works. You tell them, ATRL users! The quoted text you cite is literally proving that the AFD has a higher presence on the app and that the app naturally then pushes them to the top due to that. As it does any topic of conversation. What you're complaining about is the opposite of what you're saying - wanting editorial and artificial boosting to the algorithm. You're literally advocating that the app artificially boost other parties. And I might even agree! But make that argument! Should the app boost the Green Party so they show up when you search Democrats in the US like how you want less popular parties boosted to show when searching through AFD in Germany? Edited July 17 by Communion 1
Rev8 Posted July 17 Posted July 17 43 minutes ago, Communion said: TikTok is literally the most prominent platform leftist activism is being built on, so much so the US is literally trying to ban it due to anti-Israel sentiment on the app growing to the point of intervening within national politics. Well this article proves otherwise or do they have other plans for different countries, since they did admit to pushing what they wanted to push (even if it did stop them in the past) not saying that TikTok aint pro-Palestine (probably bigger than some other apps, who are also pretty lefty~) btw
Rep2000 Posted July 17 Posted July 17 Love how some people now pretend not know how to read when their precious social media platform is promoting far right contents. Let's not act like the platform(s) can't promote or push certain agendas on its own as long as it creates more engagement and profits for themselves. We are talking about a major corpo here lol. 2
Communion Posted July 17 Posted July 17 (edited) 22 minutes ago, Rev8 said: Well this article proves otherwise or do they have other plans for different countries, since they did admit to pushing what they wanted to push (even if it did stop them in the past) not saying that TikTok aint pro-Palestine (probably bigger than some other apps, who are also pretty lefty~) btw Who is they? TikTok? Because this is literally the entire concept of TikTok. That your feed is curated to you and gives you the dopamine from a constantly re-affirming echo chamber. What the top comments are on videos are even arranged in a way to show you what comments would be most relevant to you on a post based on the algorithm. Sure let's talk about the possible dangers of that. But that's not unique. Youtube has the same problem. The conversation should be calling for TikTok to censor right wing parties as a means of safety. Not a conspiracy that they are in bed with them- something the article even says there's no proof of in terms of there being any connection between the AfD and the platform. The AfD is just flooding the platform with content in Germany. The irony being that it is criticized that China makes TikTok comply with its regulations in China to be downloadable. But it seems like what many Western countries want is to be able to do the same as China. Why don't countries pass similar laws that make it so TikTok cannot show political content to users under 18? On Douyin, you can only use the app for so long in the day if you're under a certain age. Edited July 17 by Communion
Recommended Posts