Despite China Security Risk Controversy, European Politics Embrace 'TikTok Craze'

Irish and German Prime Ministers Communicate with Supporters on 'TikTok'
French President Macron Has 4 Million Followers

With the European Parliament elections approaching this June, major foreign media reported on the 9th (local time) that TikTok's popularity is increasing day by day among prominent politicians in the region. Despite security risk controversies, it is interpreted that they cannot give up TikTok's media influence, which can target the younger generation.

According to reports, Simon Harris, Ireland's Minister of Education who secured the position of the next Prime Minister last month, adopted TikTok as a communication channel with his supporters. Holding the title of Ireland's youngest Prime Minister, he posted a video on TikTok containing his growth story along with the phrase "Thank you for your support." With about 95,000 followers, he is even called the "TikTok Prime Minister" by opposition members in the parliament.

Olaf Scholz, Germany's Chancellor, opened a TikTok account on the 8th ahead of his visit to China and posted videos showing his office, demonstrating efforts to reach younger voters. Earlier, Karl Lauterbach, Germany's Minister of Health, also said on his TikTok account, "The revolution of TikTok starts today," adding, "We cannot leave social networking services (SNS) to the Alternative for Germany (AfD)." AfD is a far-right party that recently surged to second place in approval ratings, surpassing the Social Democratic Party to which Scholz and Lauterbach belong, and has 410,000 TikTok followers.

Emmanuel Macron, President of France, is also a famous TikToker with 4 million followers. A close aide to President Macron explained, "President Macron views the usefulness of TikTok and the need for regulation as separate issues," adding, "We cannot exclude voters who do not watch television news or read newspapers."

As pointed out by Macron's aide, SNS platforms like TikTok have recently emerged as new news channels for the younger generation. According to the annual Digital News Report released by major foreign media, the proportion of people worldwide who accessed news via web or apps last year was 22% of all respondents, down 10 percentage points compared to 2018. In contrast, news access through SNS such as TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat steadily increased during the same period, ranking first in 2023 at 30%. In particular, TikTok is the fastest-growing SNS among them, with 20% of global 18-24-year-olds watching news on TikTok.

Recently, major Western countries led by the United States have been imposing strong regulations due to concerns over data leaks from ByteDance, TikTok's China-rooted parent company. Earlier, the European Union (EU) also banned the installation of TikTok on the mobile phones of employees belonging to all policy-making institutions, including the European Parliament, European Commission, and European Council last year. However, despite such regulatory trends, foreign media pointed out that a TikTok craze is sweeping European politics due to mainstream politicians wary of losing seats to minor parties successfully utilizing short-form content in the upcoming June European Parliament elections.

Meanwhile, in the United States, a bill banning TikTok distribution on the U.S. App Store until ByteDance completely sells its U.S. business passed the House of Representatives. This is based on concerns that data of 170 million U.S. TikTok users could be transferred to the Chinese government. In response, Jodi Seth, TikTok spokesperson, criticized it as an "unfounded ban," hoping "the Senate listens to voters' opinions and makes a fact-based, reasonable judgment."