The AfD was twice as effective at reaching first-time voters on the app than all other parties combined, according to an analysis of platform data. This may explain why the party performed so well among young voters.

    • Hubi@feddit.org
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      2 years ago

      Unfortunately true for a lot of European countries. It’s easy to post a 20 second video about “foreigners bad” and kids with the attention span of a gnat will eat it right up. A longer video that explains why things really are the way they are will get swallowed by the algorithm. It just amplifies populism and outrage and will be one of the great hurdles to overcome this century.

        • MoogleMaestro@lemmy.zip
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          2 years ago

          We could force control of Tik Tok’s algorithm to be managed by a United States entity. You know, basically what China does to US businesses who want to sell product in China.

          If they don’t want that, they could let Google serve wikipedia articles about Tienanmen Square again lol.

            • MoogleMaestro@lemmy.zip
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              2 years ago

              It’s a fair point. Frankly, considering where I am, I think America’s social media should really be forced to engage with some kind of open federation standard (doesn’t have to be activity pub) as I think it better reflects how the United States itself is designed as a republic. That feels like a long shot, but it’s the dream.

          • emax_gomax@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            Is China tailoring the content to politics or are political influencers just better at pandering to people with blatant lies. Either way tiktok and other social networks should have more controls in place to filter misinformation but I’m curious if the affect is intentional or incidental.

            • MoogleMaestro@lemmy.zip
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              2 years ago

              Is China tailoring the content to politics or are political influencers just better at pandering…

              It’s hard to say without proof so I won’t pretend to know the answer. What I do know is that, if the roles were reversed, China would 100% believe that any movement that caused chaos within the country was somehow orchestrated by the United States as that’s what they’ve done in the past. So, until we have a hospitable relationship where the countries see eye to eye on any social issues, it really doesn’t make sense for either control to have the keys to a popular social media network in the other – if you get my drift. I will also say that promotional programs of games and movies from China, like the recent Wukong controversy, highlights that China very much believes in pushing their political narrative to the degree that it would be hard to imagine them not using it with a widely popular social media network like Tik Tok.

              This is where federation is smart though – the content is dispersed enough that the idea of removing a server is less daunting and there are fewer entities that are too big to fail.

        • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          If it’s any consolation

          But that battle is a tough one for Republicans, given Gen Z voters overwhelmingly supported Democrats over Republicans in the midterms by 27 points — and prioritized protecting abortion access by a higher amount than any other generation, according to SocialSphere’s survey data.

          I suspect the kids, as a whole, are alright. Not that we shouldn’t take this seriously, but we don’t have to start planning our funerals yet.

            • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              Not sure, but I can say from personal experience here that, while right-wing parties are less popular amongst Gen Z, the right-wingers that are in Gen Z tend to be very political, not just casually political, and more extreme than your average Joe Schmoe conservative. Might be a contributor.

                • addictedtochaos@lemm.ee
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                  2 years ago

                  it has been shown:

                  the more crisis in a society, the more pressure you need to keep it under control, the more extreme the outer fringes get. It is always this way.

    • gmtom@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      It’s the same everywhere because the far right are actively trying to manipulate people and get then into “the pipeline” while the left don’t have a coordinated propaganda campaign.