Are social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram slowly becoming more like 4chan—a platform where users typically post extremely controversial content? Over the past few years, social media platforms have been consisting of increasingly more extremist far-right content, which was primarily driven by recent worldwide tensions such as conflict in the Middle East or between Russia and Ukraine, uploaded by either individuals or entire groups. As a result of this sudden societal instability, political parties, news outlets, and influential individuals push an agenda to take advantage of the most affected demographic on these platforms—teenagers.
Adolescents, aged 13-19, are in the developmental stage of their lives, not only in terms of their brain maturation, but also in terms of their identities. The opinions of teenagers who are exposed to this kind of media can easily be influenced. What is concerning about this fact is that these individuals are the ones who will shape the futures of our nations. With politically charged media, they begin to join sides of certain political views. A real-world example is Germany’s AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) party, whose popularity has increased substantially. In Germany’s most recent election, this party won 44% of the vote. The AfD party’s main goals are mass deportations and segregation of refugee children in school by status—with one of their “resolutions” being to offer separate classes for them. AfD’s recruiting of young individuals is a crucial asset to determine if they win the majority vote of Germany’s election.
This is also the case for many other European countries that are using social media campaigns to align youths with their ideologies. Reform UK gained 22,239 voters in their most recent election, roughly 63% of the votes. This was accomplished just after a social media campaign, highlighting the increasing crime rates after borders were opened for asylum-seekers and migrants who came to the UK for a better life, was published. They used their status and the vulnerability of adolescents to portray migrants as a threat to the United Kingdom, or Europe, for that matter. This party illuminates how unjust the current legal system is, how “anyone is let in,” and how the United Kingdom is on the verge of collapse “due to the left.” (Wikipedia, Reform UK election results)
But what is the strategy for politicians like Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, to win over the majority vote? Their strategy is to use an external factor as the problem and claim they can fix it; whether it’s open borders or illegal immigration, thousands of votes come flooding in their favor during election season because their voters believe the problems they acknowledge can be fixed by certain events or laws the party deems as “problematic.”
Looking at the audience they are influencing, there have been many incidents and cases of young people being radicalized online and joining dangerous online groups and forums. According to psychologists from the National Library of Medicine, the cause of the radicalization of many adolescents is due to their search for identity and belonging; this vulnerability is not only exploited by political parties on social media, but also by independent extremist groups online who are actively recruiting new members—most of whom are adolescents whose curiosity got the better of them.
Interpol claims that terrorist attacks such as bombings and armed violence from perpetrators under 18 years of age come from suspicious online activity. According to them, these groups primarily set their sights on “children and youth because society sees them as less of a threat and they therefore attract less suspicion.” (INTERPOL Spotlight, Spotlight issue 6 – Counterterrorism, FOCUS|Youth radicalization: an urgent challenge across the global counter-terrorism landscape). These young people often find themselves victims of the “salad bar” strategy, defined by former US FBI Director Christopher Wray. The “salad bar” is essentially a mix of ideas from a group distributed onto the youth; the youth internalizes all these ideas, begins to form their own beliefs, and then goes on to spread them like a disease. However, a common theme among all of these groups’ ideas is violence, specifically to commit violence against a targeted group of people or to use violence as a symbol to convey messages and ideas of hate and division.
These are certain methods and processes that groups and political organizations use to invade the minds of youths and coerce these susceptible individuals into acting into these parties’ interests. From funded social media campaigns to online message boards, people as young as thirteen are close to becoming extremists or terrorists who are exposed to material that influences them to resonate to a certain political view. In a time when society and adolescents are insecure about their current and future state, there is always an opportunity to give them a sense of belonging, whether it’s good or bad. Something society as a collective could do to give adolescents a sense of security and belonging—without indoctrinating them, is to help them accept themselves with who they are and the people who have a positive influence on their lives. Another proposal could be to raise awareness and campaign about the risks of belonging to the “wrong crowd” promoted through social media. Too much exposure to a certain ideology becomes an opportunity for malicious groups to manipulate an individual’s way of thinking, and this is precisely why we must form a collective action to stand against these harmful extremist groups.
Bibliography:
“BBC Audio | the Global Story | How the AfD Is Rewriting German History.” Bbc.Com, BBC News, 2026, www.bbc.com/audio/play/w3ct8mfs. Accessed 17 Sept. 2026.
Bronsard, Guillaume, et al. “Editorial: Radicalization Among Adolescents.” Frontiers in Psychiatry, vol. 13, 9 May 2022, www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.917557/full, 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.917557. Accessed 6 Oct. 2026.
“FOCUS|Youth Radicalization: An Urgent Challenge Across the Global Counter-Terrorism Landscape.” Interpol.Int, 2026, www.interpol.int/en/Resources/INTERPOL-Spotlight/Spotlight-Issue-6-Counter-terrorism/FOCUS-Youth-radicalization-an-urgent-challenge-across-the-global-counter-terrorism-landscape. Accessed 6 Oct. 2026.
Parker, Jessica. “Germany’s Election Clash over Nazi Past as AfD Eyes Power in Saxony-Anhalt.” BBC, 27 Aug. 2026, www.bbc.com/news/articles/cddv43d4jn2o. Accessed 17 Sept. 2026.
“Reform UK Election Results.” Wikipedia, 29 Sept. 2026, en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reform_UK_election_results&oldid=1377475676. Accessed 6 Oct. 2026.