Original version in German

The Chinese system is superior to democracy and climate change is not man-made: disinformation and conspiracy narratives are widespread among the German population - especially among young people and TikTok users, a new survey by the Gemran Allensbach Institute on behalf of the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung shows.

Ahead of Germany federal elections in Feb. 23, there is growing concern about foreign disinformation in the country. The German government is concerned that foreign states will deliberately influence public debate. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution warns against false reports and manipulation.

The representative survey by Allensbach Institute now shows that young people and TikTok users are particularly vulnerable.

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Although a small majority of respondents say that misinformation in the media is a big problem, only 44 percent of them say it is easy to recognize them.

Thus, 30 percent of the respondents do not recognize that Russia is deliberately spreading disinformation, and around 40 percent do not identify China as an actor that deliberately circulates false information.

The results show that young people are much less suspicious than older ones. For example, 42% of people under 29 doubt that Russia is deliberately spreading false information; in the case of China, more than half do.

TikTok users doubt the prevalence of misinformation at 50 percent in Russia and 59 percent in China. TikTok users are therefore significantly less suspicious than consumers of other media.

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The survey of certain disinformation narratives confirms this picture.

Only around 78 percent of those surveyed fully or rather "agree that Russia is conducting an internationally unlawful war of aggression against Ukraine. In the group of under 29-year-olds, this approval is still significantly lower at 69.7 percent. Among TikTok users, only 66 percent.

It is also a matter of concern that more than one third of all TikTok users believe that Russia has a greater interest in peace in Ukraine than the West. In the general population, only 18 percent believe this, while among young people it is 23 percent.

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The susceptibility to disinformation narratives is equally clear when it comes to whether China is a dictatorship. While around 81 percent of Germans agree with this statement, the figure is only 67 percent in the group of under 29-year-olds. Around a third of TikTok users even believe that China is not a dictatorship.

Almost 30 percent of Germans also believe that the autocratic Chinese government system is “more efficient and successful” than Western democracies. Among TikTok users, the figure is significantly higher at 42 percent.

Doubts about vaccines, climate change and pandemic

The view of fundamental scientific knowledge by young people and TikTok users is particularly frightening.

Only 71 percent of people under 29 agree that vaccines have helped save millions of lives. Among TikTokNutzers, the approval rate is even lower at 69 percent. More than 20 percent of young people, that is one in five, and around a quarter of all TikTok users even openly doubt this knowledge, which has been established for decades.

On climate change alone, young people and the general population seem to be shockingly unanimous: only 64 percent of respondents and 67 percent of young people agree that climate change is caused by human activities. Among TikTok users, it’s just over half.

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