Politics bubbles created by TikTok's algorithm primarily benefit the PVV
TikTok users interested in politics can quickly become stuck in a one-sided bubble, which particularly benefits the far-right PVV and Geert Wilders, according to research by EenVandaag.
The program created five TikTok accounts specifically for this purpose and used an automated computer program to scroll through their “For You” pages. The accounts span the political spectrum, from progressive-left to conservative-right, also including undecided. The program increased the viewing time of videos that aligned with the accounts’ political preferences, influencing the algorithm.
EenVandaag found that the For You pages very quickly became personalized, especially for the conservative right. For this account, 36 percent of all content shown was a political video. The other accounts only started showing political videos closer to the elections themselves, but the conservative right already had many political videos in the third “scrolling session” in early September.
On the conservative right, Geert Wilders and his PVV overwhelmingly get the most attention. On the progressive left, the D66 is featured in the most videos. In this bubble, GroenLinks-PvdA and leader Frans Timmermans receive less publicity than Rob Jetten (D66), Geert Wilders (PVV), and Joost Eerdmans (JA21).
The PVV is also very prominent on the center account. Remarkably, on the right wing of the center, DENK videos showing Stephan van Baarle speaking about Israel and the war in Gaza dominate the bubble. Henri Bontenbal (CDA) is also prominent on the right side of the center, with “fan videos” showing montages of his “best moments.”
The accounts on the left side of the center and the undecided voter are much less affected by these political bubbles. Both accounts received less than 10 percent political content. What they did see was a lot for the PVV and against GroenLinks-PvdA.
The content in the political bubbles is also mostly negative, focused on what is wrong. For example, videos of Van Baarle saying that “Mr. Wilders is a bungler” and Eerdmans saying that we’ve lost control of “our borders, our nitrogen policy, our public order,” are quite common. Only on the progressive left account is there something resembling a balance. There, 37 percent of the videos have a positive tone, mostly D66 videos of dancing politicians and the often-repeated message that “it is possible.”
Because TikTok is very secretive about the workings of its algorithm, EenVandaag could not find out why exactly these accounts got the videos they did. According to Bert Bakker, associate professor of political communication, all social media platforms could be more open about this.
"What is consumer demand-driven? Is it also being amplified and offered by algorithms? We need to gain a better understanding of that,” Bakker told the program. According to the professor, most people are relatively moderate, so it is concerning that far-right content is so prevalent. “You want diversity in the offering.”
