Overview

• Seventy-four percent of 16- to 27-year-olds report getting political information on Instagram or TikTok, and about half say they encounter it mainly via algorithmic feeds.
• Roughly 60% follow political influencers compared with 38% who follow parties or politicians, with 150 influencer accounts outperforming more than 400 official political accounts in reach and trust.
• Attack-oriented videos draw about 40% more views, the AfD accounts for 73% of attack clips, SPD and Volt attack least, and nearly 70% of all posts center on self-presentation while 35% contain attacks.
• Migration-related content gains about 11% higher viewership, whereas social policy, education and environmental topics underperform by single- to high-teen percentages.
• The study combines AI-supported analysis of roughly 31,000 short videos from June to December 2024 with a representative survey of 1,748 young people, and its release coincides with an expert review of youth protections as influencer Fabian Grischkat calls for clearer standards.