A study showed how politicians try to pass on party content through postings and secure the attention of future voters. Free access to social media platforms makes it possible for anti-democratic users and parties to share their content. The attempts of right-wing populist parties to influence many people are aimed at gradually shifting thinking and speech in the direction of anti-democratic and discriminatory ideas and political styles. They spread ideas that oppose economic fairness, immigration, warfare and climate change to a highly connected online audience. Within this audience, there is a significant proportion of young voters who are politically engaged and often get their news from social media platforms.
Germany
Before Obama’s success in the US presidential election in 2009, the continuous use of social media was not established among German politicians. A study, which took a closer look at the political network focusing on political parties and their political communication on Facebook, revealed that German politicians increasingly utilised the internet and social media only after the promising example set in the USA. But why does the digital arena provide an ideal platform for the spread of political content ? Through social media, it is possible to engage in a simple and direct exchange with possible voters. Compared to traditional campaign appearances, online events offer the opportunity to address a larger audience. The fact that mobile phones have become an integral part of everyday life means that everyone has access to information at all times.
Political actors are actively utilizing the young generation to present their political content. The approval ratings for the German right-wing party AfD (Alternative for Germany) have increased significantly in pre-election surveys compared to other major German parties. It is striking that the right-wing AfD party makes particularly strong use of platforms such as TikTok, YouTube and Facebook to spread their political views. The content mostly consists of half-truths and misleading information. The other German parties are far behind in terms of followers. But why does the right-wing populist AfD party manage to reach a bigger audience and have such a large number of followers compared to other German parties ?
Diagramm 1 : Follower numbers of the German political parties on Social Media :
source : Intermate Group published by rnd Visualization created by Magdalena Kensy
The secret recipe to success
The success of the German right-wing party AfD is based on various strategies. However, the biggest advantage is that the AfD started using TikTok earlier and has a better understanding of it than the other political parties. The party’s dominance on TikTok is due to the fact that it invests more in its social media communication than all the others. The content focuses on a few central subjects, such as migration and COVID-19, and regularly repeats these topics in order to generate attention and interaction. These topics are particularly suitable as they provoke strong opinions and therefore stimulate political debates. By employing provocative statements like “stop the gender madness” and “import of knife crime,” societal norms are broken, and the public is repeatedly drawn back to these topics. Strategically, the AfD plans its actions to provoke reactions from other political parties, thereby positioning itself at the center of public discourse. This tactic ensures that traditional media outlets report on their views and issues, amplifying their message further.
In contrast to other parties, AfD relies on a network of supporter accounts that include AfDs content into their own videos and distribute them with lurid titles. Supporters such as the „Junge Alternative“ and the “Identitäre Bewegung” are important cornerstones for expanding the AfD’s reach in terms of popularity. With the use of female representativeso promote their values, they follow the strategy to often appear less harmful than their male counterparts and are more appealing to a broader audience. One of the most well-known faces of the AfD party is Alice Weidel, who has more than 270,000 followers on TikTok. This means she has a larger fan community than any other political actor in Germany.
For more information about the AfD strategy
The AfD is also known for spreading half-truths and manipulating information to suit their narrative, by capitalizing on negative emotions and engaging in interactions with their audience that are often associated with negative input. This content resonates with first-time voters, addressing their fears and concerns and making them feel heard and understood by the party. This engagement keeps people on their platforms longer, leading algorithms to prioritize their content and allowing the party to build a community around its worldview.
Social media investments in Euro
Despite the AfD’s wide audience reach on TikTok, an analysis by the magazine Spiegel has revealed that the federal associations of the Greens and the CDU spent the most money on election advertising on social media during the 2021 federal election. Together, the amount spent on election advertising (on Facebook, Instagram, Google and YouTube) by the parties represented in the three months leading up to the general election totaled around 4.7 million euros.
Diagram 2 : Campaign spending from the political parties in 2021 on Facebook and Instagram in €
Data provided by Spiegel and published here. Visualisation created by Magdalena Kensy
Hungary
The base of the Hungarian situation
Fidesz is the main Hungarian political party in the parliament, with two-thirds of the votes since 2010. By 2024 more than 80% of the Hungarian mass media is owned by the Fidesz or by people who are connected to the party. The success of the right-wing party, Fidesz, is based on the most common populist methods. They always find a new enemy, which is not well-connected to the public audience : The left-side people, Soros or the EU. Every political movement and trend that is not agreeing with the Fidesz narrative is becoming an enemy. It is not doing anything good to the opinion-shaping and sharing opportunities. To make things worse, social media presence is one more advantage for the government, because on these platforms there aren’t any institutional guards who can check the facts before posting, in this way the government can get round the traditional institutions and rules of journalism. They use a new kind of social media marketing : short words, pictures, the colors of Hungary and the logo of the party.
left : It’s time to switch off the opposition show in Budapest. right : The new faces of the left-wing opposition. Source : Instagram
Cash is King
Out of the main parties in Hungary, Fidesz is not the one with the most followers, neither on Facebook nor on Instagram. However, Fidesz has the biggest appropriation for social media advertisements. The Instagram page of Fidesz has new posts every day, and Viktor Orbán posts something every second day. Even if you are not following them, you can see these posts. The party’s Instagram page consists mostly of short video-interviews with party members or speeches from the parliament. The keywords are in red or orange as a cover photo on the videos, and mostly shows hate speech of the opposition and the EU. They have spent more than 44 billion Hungarian Forint in 2022, - equal to 113 000 000 euro - to propaganda advertisements in the online media platforms and billboards. That way you can see their narrative on YouTube, Instagram and on the streets without following any members of the party on social media, and there is no need to watch mass media either. Back in 2010 they only used billboards and the mass media, however with the popularity of social media advertisement, Fidesz started to use that as well. Viktor Orbán’s personal Instagram mostly consists of pictures of him and other politicians, or pictures that present his daily tasks. All of them are the same font, colors and design. Orbán’s page shows more the prime minister’s side of the party than the Fidesz party’s Instagram, which mostly is propaganda.
Im Jahr 2022 berichtete Telex, dass Fidesz mehr als 44 Milliarden ungarische Forint - das entspricht 113 Millionen Euro - für Propaganda Werbung auf Online-Medienplattformen und Plakatwänden ausgegeben. Auf diese Weise kann man ihr Narrativ auf YouTube, Instagram und auf der Straße sehen. Dafür muss man kein Parteimitglied sein oder ihnen den sozialen Medien oder in den Massenmedien folgen. Im Jahr 2010 nutzten sie nur Plakatwände und Massenmedien. Mit der steigenden Popularität der sozialen Medien begann die Fidesz auch diese zu nutzen. Viktor Orbáns persönliches Instagram besteht hauptsächlich aus Bildern von ihm und anderen Politikern oder aus Bildern, die seine täglichen Aufgaben zeigen. Sie sind alle in der gleichen Schriftart, Farben und Design gehalten. Orbáns Seite zeigt mehr die Seite des Ministerpräsidenten, während die Seite der Fidesz-Partei hauptsächlich aus Propaganda-Inhalten besteht.
Diagram 3 : Follower numbers on Facebook and Instagram of the Hungarian parties and Viktor Orbán
Source : The data was collected by Panna Dán in March 2024 on the official social media pages of the parties.
To summarize right-wing party social media trends in Hungary, they are everywhere in post, in videos, but they are successful because Fidesz has the biggest budget to spend on propaganda, and they use the same populist narrative with the same enemies in every advertisement post and on billboards.
Belgium
In 2023, Vlaams Belang (“Flemish Interest”) and the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), both right wing parties, were the top spenders on social media advertising among European political parties, collectively investing 3.4 million euros on Facebook and Instagram ads. This expenditure constituted more than half of the total spent by all Belgian parties, which amounted to just over 6 million euros for the year, marking a one million euro increase from 2022. Despite no elections taking place in Belgium during 2023, Vlaams Belang and N-VA remained the top spenders on political ads in Europe.
AdLens, a citizen collective analyzing political adverts on social media using Facebook’s ad library data, provided these figures. Notably, Vlaams Belang led in spending on Facebook and Instagram with just under 1.7 million euros, slightly surpassing N-VA’s expenditure by 8,000 euros. The top individual spenders were predominantly male, with Melissa Depraetere from Vooruit and Georges-Louis Bouchez from MR being the only women and the sole Francophone politician, respectively, in the top 15. The pre-election period starting on February 9 imposes communication spending limits on parties and politicians for four months leading up to the election.
Additionally, with Belgians gearing up for several key elections in 2024, a recent study revealed that radical parties significantly increased their budgets for political campaign advertising on social media over the past year. Far-right parties, particularly Vlaams Belang, saw substantial boosts in spending, with a 50.6% increase between quarters in 2023. Notably, Dutch-speaking parties dominated spending, with Vlaams Belang leading, followed by N-VA and others. Despite an overall drop in spending on Meta-owned social media platforms, Flemish parties maintained high investment, especially radical ones. However, the impact of targeted social media advertising on voting behavior remains uncertain, as studies suggest minimal long-term effects.
Italy
Matteo Salvini, the Italian Vice Premier and Minister of Infrastructure, doubles down on social networks, with an average of 200 posts in a month, 8 times more than Premier Meloni. Ahead of the European elections, Salvini has been posting a countdown showing “More Italy, less Europe” by very superficial comparisons.
In the last month alone, Matteo Salvini, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, has published a staggering 266 posts on Facebook, 134 on X (formerly Twitter), 241 on Instagram, and 42 on TikTok. These numbers, revealed through an analysis conducted by DeRev for Corriere della Sera, the historic Milanese newspaper, not only indicate an acceleration in Salvini’s social media communication but also highlight the virtual arena as a battleground for comparison with other politicians, notably Premier Giorgia Meloni. The Prime Minister, in contrast, has posted only 38 messages on Facebook, 61 on X, 43 on Instagram, and 17 on TikTok. Salvini’s online presence appears to be eight times greater than that of the Premier.
Diagram 4 : Postings on social media in comparison
Source : Data provided by DeRev for Corriere della Sera Visualization created by Magdalena Kensy
On the evening of May 16, after AC Milan’s defeat to Inter Milan, the Vice Premier and Minister of Infrastructure, a Milan supporter, tweeted linking the football loss to the flooding in Emilia-Romagna. The tweet was quickly deleted after criticism of its insensitivity, but traces remained. Moreover, a Lega senator’s attempt to justify the tweet on a radio show only exacerbated the situation. Such incidents undermine the government’s efforts to maintain a high standard of crisis management and communication. They also lend credence to the portrayal of the prime minister as isolated, surrounded by individuals who hinder rather than aid her. This complicates the task of crafting and repairing the government’s communication strategy.
Just one week before the European elections, POLITICO’s research shows which parties are spending how much money on social media campaigns. The result : Prime Minister Orbán and his ruling party Fidesz bought the most adverts (based on euros spent) on Google and Meta platforms compared to every other political party in the 27 countries of the bloc. “When listing the biggest spenders on political ads in each EU country, seven of the top 10 national spenders were right-wing and far-right parties, including Hungary’s Fidesz, Germany’s AfD, Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ), the Sweden Democrats, Poland’s Law and Justice, Italy’s Brothers and Spain’s Vox,” POLITICO notes as a result of their research.
Outlook : The future on what’s left and right
Right-wing parties are becoming increasingly prominent in the political party landscape. While right-wing oriented parties are already in government in Hungary and Italy, equivalent right-wing parties are on the rise in Germany and Belgium. Across different nationalities and national borders, the strategies of right-wing parties are clearly focused on their social media presence. How this focus correlates with electoral success cannot be said definitive. What is certain, however, is that right-wing parties have a clear advantage in their appearance and in mobilizing followers/potential votes on social media platforms.
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