A poll suggests that Germans who get their news from TikTok, rather than traditional media, are less critical of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It come

German TikTokers more approving of China, Russia – survey

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2025-01-20 17:30:21

A poll suggests that Germans who get their news from TikTok, rather than traditional media, are less critical of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It comes amid a debate over shutting down the Chinese platform in the US.

Germans who get their news via the social media giant TikTok, especially those of a younger age, are more likely to hold sympathetic opinions of Russia and China, a poll has concluded.

The poll, conducted by Allensbach Institute for Germany's business-focused Free Democrats (FDP), asked some 2,000 people at the end of 2024 about their views on matters ranging from whether they see China as a dictatorship to how they see Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The poll compared the political views of respondents who relied on newspapers and TV to get their news to those who were keeping updated with the latest via social media platforms, especially TikTok. It factored in the respondents' ages.

When asked whether they fully agreed that China was a dictatorship, 57% of German newspaper readers and 56.5% of public TV viewers agreed. This came up against merely 28.1% of TikTok users, with X, YouTube and podcasts users falling in between.