140: Pan-European Propaganda
Heavenly, thy holy home!
Hello.
You are reading Understanding TikTok. It is me, Marcus (Bluesky).The last couple of days have been coined by an absurd AI-video and a not yet seen diplomatic meltdown in the White House resulting in the conclusion, that the current US administration rather sides with Russia than with long-time democratic allies in Europe. Meanwhile on TikTok i have recognized a surge of European slopaganda, as Michał Klincewicz, Mark Alfano, and Amir Ebrahimi Fard have called “The interaction between propaganda and generative AI”. Let’s talk about:
🤖 AI’s New Political Aesthetic: Slopaganda
🗳️ The German 2025 Elections - part 2
📚 Systematic Literature Review
🤖 AI’s New Political Aesthetic: Slopaganda
From Trump Gaza to a revival of Pan-European TikTok propaganda
By now you all have most likely seen the unhinged video president Trump posted on his Truth Social account, depicting a war-torn Gaza morphing into a Trump-branded beach resort (Garbage Day). It then soon turned out that the creators of the AI-generated video saw it as some sort of “satire” never meant to become a “propaganda machine” (NBC).
Interestingly enough Gemini knew?! For the first time i had used Vertex AI / Google Gemini for some AI-assistance to analyse the video before the origin became known. Gemini’s possible interpretations pointed out: satire of neo-colonialism, critique of celebrity power, commentary on economic disparity and exaggeration and absurdity (see results) as well as pretty useful answers concerning visual style references (see results). Still experimenting with AI-assistance (compare #139).
The video has yet again sparked a discussion wether “AI is *the* aesthetic of fascism” (compare New Socialist). As Roland Meyer (Bluesky) points out: As a nostalgia machine and cliché amplifier, it {genAI} is almost necessary for the creation of right-wing worldviews (Geschichte der Gegenwart).
A couple of days later on TikTok i got confronted with a bunch of accounts posting pan-european genAI propaganda (Bluesky). I am still not sure what to make of this. An aesthetic to prepare for the new geostrategic role of Europe? The necessity has become crystal clear in recent days but who pushes these videos to whom?
The platform and its users have always been a perfect seismograph for shifts in societal moods and vibes in times of crisis. Yet between Eurotok – a mostly friendly transnational discourse (“seems softer, quieter and more interesting and fun” example) – and European Edits – including nationalistic, nostalgia amplifiers – the generative AI powered Pan-European propaganda promotes euro-patriotism with retrofuturistic genAI slop and military beautification. Yet the flag all protagonists wave is a European one, supposed to represent the values of democracy, freedom, equality, rule of law, human dignity, and human rights.
🗳️ The German 2025 Elections - part 2
It is the fan accounts and TikTok affordances: memes, vibes and edits
More analysis of the German Federal elections on TikTok are coming in (compare #139). The Institute of German Economy has published a first report (in german). They coded all videos uploaded by members of the German parliament with a TikTok account by topic. Not sure if a category “personal & memes” really makes sense as i understand memes more as a crucial TikTok affordance for the successful dissemination of basically all topics.
Belltower by the Amadeu Antonio Foundation has published a good analysis (in german) with a bunch of visualisations too. Most striking to me is “the large difference in the number of “fan accounts”. While we registered between 74 (BSW) and 873 (SPD) such accounts for the democratic parties, there were 12,790 for the AfD in the same period.”
These observations are echoed in my preliminary results comparing e.g. #roberthabeckedit (188 posts) and #aliceweideledit (2080 posts). Fans are the core amplifiers using sound memes (“Deutschland braucht die AfD”) and edits in a participatory propaganda approach i am currently investigating.
📚 Systematic Literature Review
A systematic study of political communication on TikTok
Julian Hohner is a political scientist and informatics and “ a hopefully anytime soon to be finished PhD at LMU Munich working with Prof. Dr. Diana Rieger”. His main work deals with radicalisation and extremism research and the role the internet plays in these dynamics but he has just conducted a systematic literature review on TikTok & political communication.
What are your three most important findings?
The TikTok algorithm is really powerful in pushing users into rabbit holes about specific topics or attitudes – probably the most effective in cross-platform perspective.
In a plethora of studies, TikTok shows significant influence on political aspects of our world, positive and negative alike. TikTok use increases the contact and participation in politics and supports community building and expression, but is also associated with a range of problematic behaviour such as radical protest participation, increased likeliness or building far-right attitudes .
In extension, many studies warn of TikTok’s role in mainstreaming, normalising or ‘de-demonising’ radical and extreme narratives serving as platform for far-right (electoral) success.
What surprised you the most when doing your lit review?
The lack of diversity in research about TikTok’s role. Most papers either look at popularity and engagement metrics of specific themes, narratives or content or investigate the recommendation algorithm. Media effects studies, method papers that deal with how to process videos, or studies that focus on unique traits of TikTok such as livestreams, donation system, reposts or community building are rare.
Where do you see the most crucial research gap?
Longitudinal analysis that show possible time affects trends are desperately needed – only four studies could be classified as such. Only those analytical designs can, for example, sufficiently track possible rabbit hole effects or the mainstreaming of ideological extreme narratives. Data donations studies and computational method approaches are possible technical solutions for this.
Can you recommend 1 or 2 „must read“ papers on TikTok & political communication?
Already a bit outdated in this fast-changing environment TikTok is settled in, but the article does a good job in catching the essence of why and what makes political content on TikTok so unique and successful: Cervi, L., & Divon, T. (2023). Playful Activism: Memetic Performances of Palestinian Resistance in TikTok #Challenges. Social Media + Society, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/205630512311576072.
Theoretical article about the danger of normalising extreme narratives and not exactly only about TikTok (but rather on visual heavy platforms): Bonansinga, D. (2024). Visual de-demonisation: A new era of radical right mainstreaming. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 13691481241259384.
Thx Julian!
🥐 More
The TikTok ban had almost nothing to do with China but Israel (Taylor Lorenz)
TikTok has NOT revealed its algorithm points system for how it ranks (Linkedin)
How 12 Americans See Life After Watching a Lot of TikTok (NYT)
TikTok restructures trust and safety team, lays off staff in unit, sources say (Reuters)
Half-way point of the 75-day extension TikTok was afforded (Digiday)
2013 core (TikTok)
That’s it for now. Thx for reading. And now please send me your most precious TikTok video. You never do. Here. Thx.