“The main purpose of opening a TikTok channel for the European Parliament is to connect directly with the young generation and first time voters in the European elections in 2024, especially among Generation Z,” Another supposed benefit of launching an official TikTok account would be countering disinformation about the war in Ukraine, the document stated.
The largest group, the center-right European People’s Party, has 51,000 followers on TikTok. Spokesperson Pedro López
dismissed the Parliament’s move to stop using TikTok as “absurd,” vowing the EPP’s account will stay up and active.
“We will use a dummy phone and not our work phones anymore. That [dummy] phone will only be used for producing videos,” said an assistant to German Social-democrat member Delara Burkhardt, who has close to 2,000 followers. The assistant credited the platform with driving a friendlier, less abrasive political debate than other platforms like Twitter: “
On TikTok the culture is nicer, we get more questions."