Karl Lauterbach speaks of “revolution” – and looks somewhat awkwardly into the camera. It’s Monday evening, behind the scenes of the ARD program “Hart aber fair” the TikTok account “karl.lauterbach24” posts its first post. “It starts today. My first TikTok post,” says the SPD politician. Less than 24 hours later, more than 429,000 users had clicked on the video from the first official account of a federal minister on TikTok. Lauterbach, who describes himself as a “layman” when it comes to the TikTok world, already has more than 25,000 likes. It’s a promising start to the “revolution.” With a clear message: “I believe we must not leave social media to the AfD,” said Lauterbach on the ARD show that same evening.
What he means by this becomes clear to anyone who types “AfD” into the search field on TikTok – and then repeats the whole thing with the rest of the parties. The AfD parliamentary group has more than 409,000 thousand followers on the online platform and more than seven million likes. The Chancellor and Karl Lauterbach party SPD has just under 128,000 followers and 2.4 million likes. As a comparison: The SPD has around 400,000 members nationwide, the AfD just over 30,000.
The other parties perform similarly modestly. A graphic published by communications consultant Johannes Hillje on Platform X on Tuesday shows a blue bar that towers above all others. The AfD videos on TikTok achieved an average of more than 458,000 views over a period of one year. Lauterbach’s SPD is in second place with around 72,400 views. At the bottom are the Greens, whose videos were clicked on average by the TikTok community just under 24,000 times. It is also the Greens who did not even want to comment on their party’s Tiktok strategy when asked by the dpa on Tuesday.
Survey: Most used app among 14 to 25 year olds
“Politicians have missed TikTok for years,” says political consultant and political communication expert Martin Fuchs. “People underestimated the fact that young people are very political and deal with relevant issues.” He points out that the platform has more than 20 million German users and that younger people in particular spend many hours there. According to a survey by the market research institute Appinio at the end of 2022, TikTok was the most used app among 14 to 25 year olds, ahead of YouTube and Instagram.
This relevance can also be confirmed by 17-year-old Aliya, who used the platform until a year ago and logged off due to time constraints. The student from Saarland says that it is very difficult to get past the content of the AfD. She was shown “many videos” from the party – for example those in which a traditional family image was promoted or the party justified controversial positions on refugee policy. The other parties had little presence in comparison.
Political advisor Fuchs can also confirm this lead. In principle, it is to be welcomed that personalities like Lauterbach are trying to “challenge populists’ supremacy.” The expert predicts that trying to create a TikTok presence in a hasty and “actionistic” manner will fail. “The elections in the East or the European elections cannot be won with this.” TikTok requires an overall strategy and a broad and professional positioning.
Critical moment TikTok
The AfD’s secret to success? A mix, says Fuchs. The party is well networked and broadly positioned on TikTok, has no reservations about the platform and ignores individual border crossings. This dissemination of controversial content has repeatedly caused criticism of TikTok in the past.
Users and non-users are also concerned about data protection: Tiktok is the only internationally successful online platform that does not come from the USA. The operator is the Chinese company Bytedance. There are concerns that the app could be used by Chinese authorities to collect information about users.
A concern that doesn’t seem to concern the AfD much. In response to a query from the dpa, the federal office emphasized that the party’s presence on social platforms was also important because the “established media” would “either ignore or distort the meaning” of the AfD’s positions. The party is “far ahead of the other parties” because, in contrast to the others, it represents positions “that are actually in the interests of its own citizens”. An analysis that his political colleagues would reject.
The rest of the cabinet is more reserved
Upon request, the SPD, the Left and also the FDP say that they have been present on TikTok for a long time with well-known personalities. Will other ministers also follow Lauterbach’s example? Only recently, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) declared that the federal government also wanted to be present on TikTok in the future. A hip dance video of the Chancellor is still a long time coming. And the rest of the cabinet? Practices more restraint. Even Volker Wissing, FDP digital minister, who many would assume has a basic inclination towards an online presence due to his office and party affiliation, has so far given no indication of wanting to get an account. According to her spokesman, the Green Environment Minister Steffi Lemke will not do this for the time being.
Political consultant Martin Fuchs sees no problem in this reluctance of individual politicians. Not every federal minister is suitable as a Tiktokker, he explains. It is important for a political movement to be present there in some form. For the individual, a famous quote from Christian Lindner, who has not yet had a great TikTok career as Federal Finance Minister, applies: “It’s better to have no account than a bad account.”