Manipulated TikTok Videos Misrepresent Anti-AfD Protests as Far-Right Rallies
TikTok videos that went viral ahead of Germany's federal elections falsely presented January 2024 anti-far-right protests as pro-AfD rallies by replacing original audio with AI-generated crowd chants and misleading captions. Correctiv and Euroverify confirmed the manipulation, which inverted the political message of the original demonstrations to misrepresent the scale of support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
What happened
Multiple TikTok videos with millions of views showed footage from January 2024 protests against far-right extremism in Germany, but were edited with manipulated audio and captions to falsely represent them as pro-AfD demonstrations. The videos, posted by accounts named "Alice Weidel Fan" and "AfD John", replaced original chants like "Ganz Berlin hasst die AfD" (All Berlin hates the AfD) with AI-generated audio of crowds chanting "east, east, east Germany". One January 2025 video with over three million views showed Hamburg protest footage from January 28, 2024 with a caption claiming "100,000 people marched today in Hamburg for our democracy the AfD", though the original demonstration opposed the AfD and far-right extremism.
AI audio detectors identified manipulated soundtracks in multiple videos where AI-generated crowd chants replaced original audio, while the underlying video footage was taken from protests against rather than in support of the AfD. The manipulation targeted German federal elections, a period when Euroverify confirmed fake news and AI-generated propaganda were multiplying online.
Reported impact
The manipulated videos went viral with millions of views, potentially misleading TikTok users about the scale and nature of support for the AfD ahead of Germany's federal elections. Comments sections saw users expressing support for the party based on the false representations of the original protest footage.
Index analysis
The incident occurred during a period of heightened political tension following January 2024 revelations about a secret far-right meeting that had triggered mass protests across Germany. The videos falsely represented anti-far-right demonstrations that occurred as pro-far-right rallies, inverting the political message of the original events to influence perceptions of the AfD's support.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.