Overview

• Seventy-four percent of 16–27-year-olds encounter politics primarily on Instagram and TikTok, ahead of school, family, friends, newspapers and TV.
• About 60% follow political influencers versus 38% who follow parties or politicians, and a relatively small group of creators outperforms hundreds of official accounts in reach.
• Confrontational clips make up roughly 35% of posts and draw about 40% more views, with attack rates highest for AfD (73%), followed by BSW (60%) and Die Linke (48%), and lowest for SPD (23%) and Volt (13%).
• Migration content gains around 11% more views, while videos on social policy, education and the environment see significantly lower reach.
• The study analyzed about 31,000 short videos (June–December 2024) alongside a representative survey, finding young users prize technical quality, clear language and authenticity, even as infographic-heavy posts underperform.