… Default feed of X showed more content from far-right AfD than from other political parties … [The] findings suggest that engagement measures and unknown factors related to party affiliation contribute to the overrepresentation of extremes of the German political party spectrum in the default algorithmic feed of X.
Similar issues remain with (most) other platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, as shown in other investigations. Most digital platform algorithms rank content eliciting fear and anger higher than any other speech as we know. That contributes also to the political landscape we have today.
Another reminder that there has been a strong political biases on social media platform X before the 2025 German Federal Election. Elon Musk’s X boosted pro-Putin and pro-China party Alternative for Germany AfD (as well as Sarah Wagenknecht’s BSW) while suppressing speech of moderately progressive political rivals.
Similar issues remain with (most) other platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, as shown in other investigations. Most digital platform algorithms rank content eliciting fear and anger higher than any other speech as we know. That contributes also to the political landscape we have today.