A new study by nonprofit organization AI Forensics and European think tank Interface reveals that TikTok’s search algorithm may have inadvertently promoted Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to young voters during the recent European Union elections. The research highlights potential issues with TikTok’s search suggestions and their impact on political content discovery.

The report, shared exclusively with WIRED, finds that in 25% of cases, users searching for specific political parties or politicians on TikTok were presented with suggestions for other parties. In most of these instances, the suggestions were linked to the AfD, which a German court labeled as “extremist” earlier this year.

Martin Degeling, a researcher at Interface who tracks AI-based recommendation systems, noted for WIRED, “For the regular search, you will see AfD popping up more often because the AfD is more present on TikTok, but for the search suggestions there’s also this algorithmic aspect where someone decides to relate these two searches.”

The researchers emphasize that their findings do not indicate active collaboration between TikTok and far-right parties. However, they suggest the platform’s structure may provide opportunities for certain groups to increase visibility.

Miazia Schüler, a researcher with AI Forensics, told WIRED that “TikTok’s built-in features, such as the ‘Others Searched For’ suggestions, provide a poorly moderated space where the far right, especially the AfD, can take advantage.”

The study also reveals that one-third of searches resulted in conspiratorial and clickbait-style suggestions unrelated to the original search terms. For instance, searches for the Green Party sometimes yielded suggestions like “Habeck’s wife leaves,” referring to the party’s leader and German vice chancellor Robert Habeck, despite no substance to the claim or related videos on TikTok.

When provided with the report, TikTok did not dispute the findings. Due to content violations, the company has previously made some AfD-linked accounts ineligible for search recommendations. TikTok spokesperson Ariane de Selliers told WIRED, “We protect the integrity of our platform by proactively enforcing firm policies against election misinformation and hate speech and connecting people to reliable information at our Election Centers.”

The research highlights the growing importance of TikTok’s search function, particularly among younger users. According to the study, 67% of 18-to-25-year-old TikTok users in Germany frequently use the app’s search function. This aligns with Adobe research, which found that 40% of Americans now use TikTok as a search engine, with some Gen Z users relying on it more than Google.

The researchers also observed inconsistencies in TikTok’s moderation efforts. While some steps were taken to limit the spread of inaccurate or incendiary search results for specific parties or politicians, these efforts were not applied uniformly across the platform.

Salvatore Romano, head of research at AI Forensics, adds that similar issues were observed in other European countries. “Similarly problematic content was being shown across countries,” he told WIRED.

TikTok maintains that multiple factors contribute to search term recommendations, including comments and common searches made after watching a video. The company also denies using a blocklist, despite the researchers’ observation that one in three search terms returned no results in the “Others searched for” box.