Is social media fueling the unexpected surge of far-right politics? In a surprising twist, the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) became the largest party in the parliament with 37 seats.
Once a fringe party, the PVV's unexpected rise in the 2023 elections left many in shock. Its victories in traditionally liberal strongholds like Rotterdam and The Hague, and gains in places where it fell short of victory, were shocking.
The results of this election have challenged the traditional idea of urban-rural and education-based cleavages. It has been assumed that educated people are more likely to vote for so-called GAL (Green-Alternative-Liberal) parties, whereas the less educated are more likely to cast their votes for TAN (Traditional-Authoritarian-Nationalist) parties. Surprisingly, the last elections show otherwise. Social media are playing a more central role in shaping voter behavior, challenging these traditional patterns.
Geert Wilders and his party owe much of this success to social media, particularly X (former Twitter) and TikTok. Radical, controversial, and populist rhetoric clips and posts could evoke emotional sentiments across different socio-economic backgrounds. On both platforms, the clips in which Wilders appeals to nationalist sentiments are the most popular posts on his accounts. Research by Eveline Van Duffel and Reinier Kist also argues that social media amplified Wilders' reach. Wilders' message reached audiences often unengaged with traditional political discourse. This "viral effect" of TikTok allowed Wilders to connect with urban as well as rural voters at the same time.
Today, we see that social media platforms like TikTok are growing. Newcom research finds that nearly 14 million people in the Netherlands use social media daily. That amounts to an increase of almost 4% from the previous year. The study mentioned above by Eveline Van Duffel and Reinier Kist highlights how the PVV benefited disproportionately more than other political parties from content created by supporters on TikTok. Interestingly, the fact that the party itself does not have an official account on the platform was not an obstacle. The visuals and volume of content related to Wilders peaked in the days leading up to the elections, according to data from the 2024 DMI Summer School. Fan pages like nl_strijders_nl on TikTok, with thousands of followers and over a million views on popular videos about Geert Wilders, proved to be a turning point in the 2023 elections as they further amplify his populist narrative and create the perception that his party can fix deep structural problems as these messages are repeated over and over again. As the propaganda minister of the German Nazi party once said, "If you repeat the lie often enough, people will believe it."
This phenomenon is coupled with the fact, supported by research from different researchers, that social media usage leads to lower critical thinking, as it makes us more distracted. Research by Ophir et al. at Stanford University (2009) showed that heavy media multitaskers—those who process multiple streams of information simultaneously—are more susceptible to external distractions. This leads to a lower capacity for critical thinking, as they devote less focused attention to individual tasks. This can be linked to how "simple solutions," a feature of right-wing populist parties, can fit into the trend and benefit the far-right parties.
Political parties in the Netherlands are estimated to have spent over 1.3 million euros on social media campaigning only, illustrating how influential social media campaigning is.
The 2023 elections show a new era in Dutch politics, where social media can challenge conventional wisdom, creating new political dynamics and alliances. These events illustrate that social media is becoming the new element in defining political divides rather than geography or education.
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