In the end, the deciding factor was probably the power of the masses. Since Monday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been present on the video platform Tiktok, which he announced via the comparatively traditional channel X, formerly Twitter. “I won’t dance. I promise,” wrote Scholz.
After he took office, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit held out the prospect of getting the Chancellor dancing on Tiktok. In order to really reach people, you have to go “where they are and get information,” said Hebestreit, and that is increasingly Tiktok. The platform is used by 21 million – especially younger – people in Germany every month, a quarter of the population. These are people who can hardly be reached via traditional media.
According to a survey by the market research institute Appinio from the end of 2022, Tiktok was the most used app among 14 to 25 year olds. Similar to Instagram, where two million people follow the “Federal Chancellor” channel, or Address content that is appropriate for the platform – primarily with short clips.
Tiktok is suspected of being under the influence of Beijing
Politically, the decision is not without explosiveness. Tiktok belongs to the Chinese company Bytedance and is suspected of being under the influence of the communist leadership in Beijing and of not taking data protection and fake prevention very seriously. The House of Representatives in the USA has just started an attempt to force a change of ownership at Tiktok, in a rare agreement between Republicans and Democrats.
Hebestreit emphasized that the discussions surrounding Tiktok are taken very seriously. Being active on a platform does not mean agreeing to the company’s business and data protection practices. Tiktok is obliged to implement national and European rules on data protection, the protection of minors and the fight against illegal content. “Tiktok must take consistent action against the spread of misinformation and manipulation on its platform,” demanded the government spokesman.
Others discovered Tiktok as a channel for political content long before the federal government – the AfD was particularly successful. She reaches hundreds of thousands with catchy clips on topics such as migration. It was “a bit strange” to link the decision to present Scholz on Tiktok “directly with the AfD,” claimed Hebestreit.
Basically, it is the case that federal political issues are becoming increasingly important on Tiktok. It is not uncommon for the “content to be misleading or objectively wrong.” There is also a need for reliable information on Tiktok. “We want to make a contribution to this with our presence,” he said. However, the account should not be accessed from the usual work cell phones, but rather from a phone that only serves this purpose – for security reasons.