Newsletter: The far right’s anti-gender TikTok strategy is paying off
Does the left need to learn from it?
Germany’s most extreme party just won an election. It used anti-gender rhetoric online to do it. Plus good news stories from around the world and what Kelsey Morgan said about human trafficking.
Germany’s “most dangerous man” has been busy on TikTok over the summer. Since July, Ulrich Siegmund, the leader of the far-right extremist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the Saxony-Anhalt region, told his 966,500 followers that “nobody needs gender studies”. He wrote that puberty blockers have no place in Saxony-Anhalt and implied that they sexualize children. He explained that everyone has the right to live freely – but funding LGBTQ+ projects is a “disproportionate” priority.
Last Sunday, the AfD won the regional elections in Saxony-Anhalt by a near-landslide. Nearly half – 44% – of the region’s population voted for a party that’s against feminism, LGBTQ+ folks and immigrants, and denies human-caused climate change. Mainstream politicians called the election win a “grave moment for Europe”.
The AfD victory can be partially explained by how successfully the party has mastered social media. Already in 2024, it was the political party in Germany getting the most traction on TikTok. Part of this is because the AfD is savvy about who it works with, from influencers to “grassroots” far-right groups that are really front organizations for the AfD. But another reason is that it’s really good at using inflammatory rhetoric, which the algorithm adores.
That rhetoric is rooted in the villainization of LGBTQ+ people.
