A review of political discourse on TikTok suggests that the party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is supported by a significant number of highly active accounts that only serve to spread AfD content to millions of viewers. These accounts have no clear affiliations and do not provide indications of authenticity. No other German parliamentary party appears to have a similar ecosystem of murky accounts. We see a similar situation in relation to the French party Rassemblement National (RN).
The proliferation and use of such accounts is happening in broad daylight. These accounts are easy to find. We are concerned that TikTok is not acting in line with its own community standards, commitments it made under the Code of Practice on Disinformation, legal obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA) or the guidelines for the EP elections, adopted by the European Commission under the DSA.
We recommend the company carry out an urgent review of all such accounts in France and Germany and across the EU27 member states ahead of the EP elections. We have made these findings and our recommendations available to TikTok.