Social media is good for right-wing extremism
It just takes a few minutes, then the algorithm leads 18-year-old “Erik” to far-right content.
This week published Aftonbladet Kultur an examination that shows how quickly it is for a hypothetical first-time voter to fall down a rabbit hole of racism and right-wing extremism on the Tiktok platform.
The rocks that come up are disgusting. National romantic fantasies of blonde children are interspersed with clips of masked men shouting Allah akbar. Jimmie Åkesson is the politician who completely dominates the flow.
What happens on Tiktok is important, because the platform is where young people spend the most time. The algorithm is impenetrable, and once you start getting right-wing content, it’s hard to get out. It’s enough that you happen to like an Ai-generated clip of a dancing party leader. The results in Aftonbladet’s survey are supported by that the magazine Resumé noted the corresponding pattern in a recent review.
Most parents and older generations don’t know what kind of public their own children and other young people live in. Getting knowledge about it is also difficult, because Tiktok’s algorithms are secret, and no one really understands what behavioral signals it responds to. Each feed is personal.
A problem that highlighted by the researchers in the report is that far-right parties both benefit from the algorithms and are many steps ahead when it comes to producing material that fits the platform. Many traditional media and political parties are stuck in an old logic where they do not want to use the tools that work on Tiktok – humor, strong emotions, speed – to spread their material.
The digital public raises strong emotions that are perfectly suited to political forces that derive their power from anger and hatred. But it is not right-wing extremist parties that are good at social media, it is social media that is good at right-wing extremism. An almost parodic example of this is that many in both the government and the political opposition are still active in Elon Musk’s platform X, formerly Twitter. This despite the fact that since Musk took over the platform has become a place for anti-Semitism, child pornography and propaganda.
In the 2024 election campaign, TV4’s Kalla fakta revealed in an award-winning review how The Sweden Democrats worked with troll factories to spread misinformation online. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that part of the lack of will to try to remove the worst varieties of racism and right-wing extremism online is simply about the fact that right-wing populist forces in the Sweden Democrats and other parties would simply lose out.
Some voices claim that the election is not decided on Tiktok. The open racism and hatred our review shows is said not to affect attitudes and values.
In the meantime, Swedish youth continue to be indoctrinated with open racism and gross extremism on the platform where they spend several hours of their time every day.
