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Chancellor Scholz (SPD) during the “Chancellor’s Talk” with citizens in Dresden
Photo:
Jens Schlueter / AFP
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has spoken out in favor of the federal government having a presence on the social media platform TikTok in the future.
"The federal government is also discussing this and I think it's right," said Scholz at a citizens' dialogue in Dresden.
He had previously been asked why the AfD had a strong presence there, but centrist parties hardly had one.
With its social strategy, the AfD reaches more accounts than the other parties on TikTok, where primarily young users upload short videos of playback and dance performances.
As a study showed in early February, the right-wing party received an average of 430,000 impressions per TikTok clip between January 2022 and December 2023.
For comparison: the second-placed FDP received an average of 53,000 impressions.
During his visit to Dresden, the SPD politician said that it was important to be active and be noticed on all channels.
Accordingly, the federal government and ministries have been discussing for months which social platforms they should be present on and which not.
Scholz also addressed the problem that social media has made it more difficult to combat disinformation.
The Chancellor did not go into detail about the Federal Government's appearance on TikTok, which is operated by the Chinese company ByteDance.
The Chancellor called on citizens to exercise “reality control” beyond the digital media and to tell people directly if they hold outlandish opinions.
In the past, this was done in a sports club, in the pub or in the family circle.
Today some people on social networks felt their absurd ideas were confirmed.
“And that means you have to disagree sometimes and say, like before: nonsense.”
kim/Reuters