Far-right, Populist Facebook Posts

AfD’s Facebook posts — often accompanied by an election poster — usually concerned European political issues. At times, they encouraged dissatisfaction with other German political parties by criticizing their members or by oversimplifying their policy platforms.

In one such election poster, the AfD claimed that Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (The Greens) had pushed for the complete prohibition of gas and diesel by 2030. This characterization is inaccurate, however, as the Greens want to pave the way for a prohibition on the registration of non-emission-free cars starting in 2030, while still allowing those registered prior to 2030 on the streets following the prohibition.

Election poster attacking the party Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (The Greens) for allegedly wanting to completely prohibit gas and diesel. Translated from German, the poster says, “Crazy goal until 2030! Greens want to completely prohibit gas & diesel!” The post garnered 8,456 engagements. (Source: @alternativefuerde/archive)

In another post, the AfD exploited a scandal regarding a politician from the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany) who had lied about his domicile and girlfriend. The AfD added a false accusation that he had also falsified his resume — a claim that was not featured in the article provided as source. In another Facebook post, the AfD claimed that Facebook allegedly restricted the reach of the populist party’s posts to the platform. The AfD did not elaborate any further on the alleged restriction.

Election poster attacking an SPD politician for lying about his girlfriend and allegedly falsifying his resume. Translated from German, the poster says, “Despite false statements still on the EU voting list! SPD politician invents girlfriend & falsifies resume.” The post garnered 5,920 engagements. (Source: @alternativefuerde/archive)

Screenshot of an AfD Facebook post with 9,199 engagements. Translated from German, the part highlighted in red says, “Since Facebook clearly extremely restricts the reach of our content wherever it can, we continue to ask our dear readers to share our content”. (Source: @alternativefuerde/archive)

The AfD also posted about European and German asylum policies and the allegedly extremely low return rate of asylum-seekers to Greece according to the Dublin Regulation, which requires refugees to request asylum in the country of their first arrival in Europe. While the information about the return rates was accurate, the election poster oversimplified the manifold reasons resulting in the low rates, such as court decisions in favor of the asylum-seekers as well as the poor conditions and limited space in refugee shelters in Greece. During the refugee influx in 2015, Germany had temporarily ceased to comply with the Dublin Regulation in order to show solidarity with and relieve pressure for countries at the external border of the European Union.

Election poster on the allegedly extremely low return rate of asylum-seekers to Greece. Translated from German, the poster says, “No April-fool’s joke: Dublin-return rate amounts to 0,1%! Only six (6) asylum seekers went back to Greece in 2018!” The post garnered 3,968 engagements. (Source: @alternativefuerde/archive)

Major German Parties Cannot Keep Up

A CrowdTangle analysis of the official Facebook pages of the seven other parties in the Bundestag further backed the disproportionately high engagement rate with the populist party AfD’s page.

The DFRLab also monitored and analyzed the official Facebook pages of the CDU (Christian Democratic Union of Germany), CSU (Christian Social Union in Bavaria), SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany), Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Alliance 90/the Greens), FDP (Free Democratic Party), Die Linke (The Left), and AfD (Alternative for Germany) within the same period. The analysis, however, did not comprise any regional party pages.

According to the CrowdTangle analysis, AfD by far garnered the most engagements (below referenced as “interactions”) within the period of analysis. Out of the roughly 735,700 engagements on all content on the major parties’ Facebook pages, the AfD garnered a disproportionately significant 519,200 engagements, or 70.5 percent.

CrowdTangle graph illustrating the total interactions of the Facebook pages of the different German parties. (Source: @Welteninsel/DFRLab via CrowdTangle)

Although engagement with the content varied significantly, the number of posts by the parties was relatively equally distributed. While the AfD published the most content, at 100 posts within the period of analysis, other parties, particularly the CSU and FDP, came close to AfD’s publishing rates with 90 and 81 posts, respectively. Therefore, engagement with content on the parties’ Facebook pages did not necessarily correlate with the number of posts. The timing of the posts was less consistent, with the AfD posting at a relatively constant rate in comparison the other parties, which might have contributed to a greater engagement — too many posts in a shorter time period can lead to timeline dilution, decreasing the chance of engagement across a number of posts.

CrowdTangle graph illustrating the post counts of the Facebook pages of the different German parties. (Source: @Welteninsel/DFRLab via CrowdTangle)

The other parties’ pages emphasized similar types (e.g., photos, videos) of content, so AfD’s outsize engagement is more likely to be one of substance than of presentation.

CrowdTangle graph illustrating the interaction for each post type on the AfD’s Facebook page within the period of analysis. (Source: @Welteninsel/DFRLab via CrowdTangle)

Out of all engagement types with content on the AfD’s Facebook page, the most featured engagement types were likes (34.95 percent), shares (31.41 percent), and the angry emoji (16.99 percent). On the last, the content of the other parties’ Facebook pages garnered significantly fewer angry emoji responses, with the exception of the CDU, where the angry emoji was the third most common response (7.5 percent).

CrowdTangle graph illustrating the interaction types to the content published by the AfD within the period of analysis. (Source: @Welteninsel/DFRLab via CrowdTangle)

Conclusion

A significant number of posts among the most engaged-with Facebook posts featuring German keywords in regard to the EP elections were directly affiliated with the populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD). While the first analysis based on CrowdTangle’s database is not representative, it does suggest a disproportionately favorable engagement trend for AfD.

The different types of Facebook engagements, such as likes, comments, or specific emoji reactions, do not necessarily reflect approval or disapproval for the AfD’s message; nevertheless, they do affect the reach of the AfD’s messaging on Facebook. Due to the platform’s algorithm, Facebook posts with higher engagement rates generally tend to appear more often on users’ newsfeeds, and thus have better reach on the platform. To the detriment of the pro-European parties and their content on Facebook, the AfD’s high overall engagement rates could contribute to the increased reach of the AfD’s populist content on Facebook ahead of the European Parliament elections.