Young people often have different opinions on foreign policy than the rest of the population – especially when they use TikTok. This is the result of a survey conducted by the Ellenbach Institute on behalf of the FDP-affiliated Friedrich Naumann Foundation. About 67 percent of respondents between the ages of 16 and 29 agreed with the statement that China is a dictatorship. It was 62 percent among users of the video platform TikTok, but it was 81 percent among all those surveyed.
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In contrast to about 78 percent of all respondents, 70 percent of 16 to 29 year olds agreed with the statement that “Russia is waging a war of aggression against Ukraine that violates international law.” Here too, TikTok users were quite low with an approval rating of 66 percent.
TikTok has influence on other topics as well. According to the survey, 25 percent of the total population believes that the Corona epidemic was created deliberately so that the population could be controlled more closely. This was about 44 percent of the TikTok users surveyed.
TikTok under criticism
“Young people are much more receptive to disinformation and TikTok plays an important role in this. We must not allow Chinese and Russian disinformation to spread among us,” commented Sabine Leutheiser-Schnorenberger, Vice President of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. Result of the study.
Video app TikTok is owned by ByteDance company, which is headquartered in China. TikTok was temporarily unavailable in the US on Sunday. Background There is an obligation to sell the US branch. The video app went down shortly before the deadline, but later came back online. Politicians and experts view video apps as a security risk and warn that the Chinese government could access Americans’ data and manipulate public opinion.
In what it claims to be a representative survey, the Allensbach Institute, on behalf of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, surveyed a total of 2,092 people aged 16 and older between November 28 and December 4, 2024. Among other things, respondents were asked the following: Please indicate the extent to which you personally agree with these statements
- Russia is waging an aggressive war against Ukraine in violation of international law
- there is dictatorship in china
- The corona pandemic was deliberately spread by governments or elites to increase control over the population.
The answer choices were:
- totally agree
- i agree
- I disagree
- absolutely not agree
(mho)
