{ "id": 4961, "date": "2026-11-13T12:25:04", "date_gmt": "2026-11-13T12:25:04", "guid": { "rendered": "https:\/\/transformativecommunication.net\/?p=4961" }, "modified": "2026-11-13T12:25:04", "modified_gmt": "2026-11-13T12:25:04", "slug": "hearts-for-hating-activists", "status": "publish", "type": "post", "link": "https:\/\/transformativecommunication.net\/de\/klimaprotest\/hearts-for-hating-activists\/", "title": { "rendered": "Hearts for Hating Activists: Climate Protest on TikTok" }, "content": { "rendered": "
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Hearts for Hating Activists: How far-right actors dominate polarized TikTok debates on climate protest<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Hendrik Meyer<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Research on the polarization of climate protest debates has mostly looked at news coverage and at Twitter\/X, while political debates on TikTok remain heavily understudied. This study examines how polarized debates about climate protest are on TikTok, and whether polarization depends on protest tactics or on political ideology. It compares debates about reformist protest (Fridays for Future), disruptive protest (Last Generation) and climate activism in general.<\/p>

The analysis is based on 1,663 TikTok videos posted by German politicians between 2022 and 2025 and about 53,000 user comments on these videos. The videos were transcribed automatically. A large language model then classified which of ten frames each video uses: five supportive and five antagonistic, each either moderate and policy-oriented or extreme and defamatory. The comments were classified by stance, that is, whether they support or reject the video. Supportive comments were then treated as ties between users and politicians, which makes it possible to map the networks of support that form around the videos.<\/p>

Looking at the videos alone, protest tactics seem to matter most. A little over half of the posts about Fridays for Future (51 percent) and about climate activism in general (56 percent) call for climate action or defend the activists. By contrast, 81 percent of the posts about Last Generation use antagonistic frames, and 61 percent portray the activists as extremists, criminals or murderers, or defame them in other ways. Once ideology is taken into account, the picture changes. Left-wing progressive politicians frame all forms of protest largely in supportive terms. Among right-wing conservative politicians, 86 to 92 percent of the frames used are oppositional, and among far-right politicians 94 to 97 percent, regardless of the protest group. Even Fridays for Future is rarely discussed in terms of climate policy on the right.<\/p>

The comment sections split into two camps that align almost perfectly with party support: advocates and antagonists of climate protest. There is no boundary between the audiences of conservative and far-right politicians. They form one connected network in which far-right accounts hold the most central positions. Far-right accounts make up only about 28 percent of accounts but attract around 60 percent of all supportive engagement. In debates about Last Generation, advocates are almost absent from the network (4 percent). Antagonist audiences reward defamatory content rather than policy criticism: videos that frame activists as extremists are considerably more likely to receive supportive comments from them. Verbal attacks by antagonists make up 44 percent of all comments that cross the two camps. The title of the paper refers to one of these patterns: heart emojis posted under defamatory videos look friendly, but they endorse hostility towards the other side.<\/p>

Overall, polarization on TikTok is not primarily triggered by the type of protest. Disruptive protest intensifies the attacks, but right-wing actors target activists and their supporters in every protest debate. This polarization is asymmetric, and far-right politicians benefit most from it in terms of user engagement. The study also raises a conceptual point: a debate that looks cohesive because one camp dominates it is not depolarized in any desirable sense. As a limitation, the video sample consists only of politicians\u2019 accounts, so debates beyond the political sphere of TikTok may look different.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Framing\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Framing patterns in TikTok videos about Fridays for Future, climate activism in general and Last Generation, by ideological affiliation of politicians.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Network\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Network of supportive comment interactions (about 23,000 users), coloured by support for party groups (top) and by protest frames (bottom).<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Meyer, H. (2026). Hearts for hating activists: How far-right actors dominate polarized TikTok debates on climate protest. Information, Communication & Society<\/em>. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/1369118X.2026.2737399<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>", "protected": false }, "excerpt": { "rendered": "

Hearts for Hating Activists: How far-right actors dominate polarized TikTok debates on climate protest Hendrik Meyer Research on the polarization of climate protest debates has mostly looked at news coverage and at Twitter\/X, while political debates on TikTok remain heavily understudied. This study examines how polarized debates about climate protest are on TikTok, and whether […]<\/p>", "protected": false }, "author": 2, "featured_media": 4979, "comment_status": "closed", "ping_status": "", "sticky": false, "template": "", "format": "standard", "meta": { "footnotes": "" }, "categories": [ 60 ], "tags": [], "class_list": [ "post-4961", "post", "type-post", "status-publish", "format-standard", "has-post-thumbnail", "hentry", "category-klimaprotest" ], "_links": { "self": [ { "href": "https:\/\/transformativecommunication.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4961", "targetHints": { "allow": [ "GET" ] } } ], "collection": [ { "href": "https:\/\/transformativecommunication.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts" } ], "about": [ { "href": "https:\/\/transformativecommunication.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post" } ], "author": [ { "embeddable": true, "href": "https:\/\/transformativecommunication.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2" } ], "replies": [ { "embeddable": true, "href": "https:\/\/transformativecommunication.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4961" } ], "version-history": [ { "count": 6, "href": "https:\/\/transformativecommunication.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4961\/revisions" } ], "predecessor-version": [ { "id": 4988, "href": "https:\/\/transformativecommunication.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4961\/revisions\/4988" } ], "wp:featuredmedia": [ { "embeddable": true, "href": "https:\/\/transformativecommunication.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4979" } ], "wp:attachment": [ { "href": "https:\/\/transformativecommunication.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4961" } ], "wp:term": [ { "taxonomy": "category", "embeddable": true, "href": "https:\/\/transformativecommunication.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4961" }, { "taxonomy": "post_tag", "embeddable": true, "href": "https:\/\/transformativecommunication.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4961" } ], "curies": [ { "name": "wp", "href": "https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}", "templated": true } ] } }