Many European politicians are in denial. They fail to listen to their electorate, so the voters choose someone else.
Look at Germany, for example, where the old parties are desperately hanging onto power, in the face of surging AfD popularity. Or France, using lawfare against LePen.
Actually accepting democratic results? The voters don't like our policies, so we'll yield gracefully? Doesn't seem to be an option.
I wonder if it's really TikTok to blame here. In many other countries the extreme right is also rising. Even in my home country :( This goes deeper than TikTok or even social media.
No not really. Not TikTok specifically. More social media in general.
Social media algorithms prioritise engagement and anger is a big driver for engagement. So it tends to serve polarising content that people get worked up about. Then they stay active on the platform and see more ads.
Social media is also a platform for Russian troll farms of course. Much more so than traditional media.
And there's factors unrelated to social media too. We're constantly in crises these days. This gets on people's nerves and the extreme right has an 'easy out' by denying these problems (eg climate change) or blaming it all on immigrants (eg jobs, housing issues).
But singling TikTok out overlooks the wider problem IMO.
>Social media is also a platform for Russian troll farms of course.
You meant American, right?
"By 2010, the military began using social media tools, leveraging phony accounts to spread messages of sympathetic local voices – themselves often secretly paid by the United States government. As time passed, a growing web of military and intelligence contractors built online news websites to pump U.S.-approved narratives into foreign countries. Today, the military employs a sprawling ecosystem of social media influencers, front groups and covertly placed digital advertisements to influence overseas audiences, according to current and former military officials.
...
Nevertheless, the Pentagon’s clandestine propaganda efforts are set to continue. In an unclassified strategy document last year, top Pentagon generals wrote that the U.S. military could undermine adversaries such as China and Russia using “disinformation spread across social media, false narratives disguised as news, and similar subversive activities [to] weaken societal trust by undermining the foundations of government.”
And in February, the contractor that worked on the anti-vax campaign – General Dynamics IT – won a $493 million contract. Its mission: to continue providing clandestine influence services for the military."[0]
Not sure what you exactly mean by "populist politics" but in Europe the political landscape and its evolution is not caused by Tiktok or social media, it's caused by events and governments policies over the last 60 years.
Specifically regarding Tiktok: It appeared in 2016, so is extremely recent and all the political forces in Europe predate it by far. 2016 is also the date of the Brexit referendum and Trump's first election so can't be "blamed' for either.
Regarding the EU I think what has been happening over the years is that the EU has been taking bigger and bigger steps to control speech and member states' politics, which is a worrying trend.
This. There are actually two things that the EU is pushing, that the populace does not want.
One is regulating speech. I'm familiar with both the UK and Germany: in both, you can go to jail for insulting people, especially if the person you insult is a politician. They are expanding this to include ever milder insults, and ever more forms of speech. Absolutely dystopian.
The other is unregulated immigration. All of Europe is being flooded by young men from Northern Africa and the Middle East. Uneducated, unskilled, and often criminal. Yet the governments refuse to kick them out, or to prevent ever more from arriving.
The latter, immigration, is the single biggest factor driving the emergence of the far right.
>The latter, immigration, is the single biggest factor driving the emergence of the far right.
That's ironic that Merkel tried to whitewash Germany's image as a former Nazi country by accepting millions of immigrants from Middle East and Africa, but also caused the rise German nationalists which is looked at with unease.
I think Merkel will go down in history has having made several catastrophic strategic mistakes, from nuclear to Russia to her response to the 2015 crisis in the Middle East (which may have titled the balance in the 2016 Brexit referendum, though it is unclear whether that is good or bad for Germany).
Look at Germany, for example, where the old parties are desperately hanging onto power, in the face of surging AfD popularity. Or France, using lawfare against LePen.
Actually accepting democratic results? The voters don't like our policies, so we'll yield gracefully? Doesn't seem to be an option.
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