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New report - Live-Streaming: Mapping Networks of Influence and (Dis)information Flow

  • 1.  New report - Live-Streaming: Mapping Networks of Influence and (Dis)information Flow

    Posted 5 hours ago
    Dear community,

    We are excited to share with you our report, "Live-Streaming: Mapping Networks of Influence and (Dis)information Flow," emerging from the 2025 Digital Methods Summer School research project on live-streaming.

    https://www.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/SummerSchool2025LiveStreaming

    Our report offers a deep dive into the infrastructure, cultures, and governance dynamics shaping far-right live-streaming on TikTok. We have found a bunch of troubling things, but (very) briefly, we see radicalization increasingly operating through the ordinary on TikTok Live. Streamers blend extremist messages into the rhythms of daily life (a bit of weather talk, breakfast update, sunscreen recommendation), making ideology feel casual and safe. Moderation is easily outmaneuvered; "6 million cookies," emojis, algospeak, and dog whistles allow harmful narratives to circulate openly without triggering detection. At the same time, extremism has become a revenue stream. TikTok Live's gifting economy directly finances extremist and AfD-adjacent streamers, while TikTok takes 50% of every gift. Parasocial intimacy deepens the pull. Live Matches, gifting rituals, and constant back-and-forth with audiences create emotional pressure and closeness that quickly turns into political gravity. And overarching all of this is a governance system where safety loses out to profit. Under the DSA, TikTok rigorously enforces commercial violations, yet violence, harassment, and extremist propaganda remain vastly under-moderated, allowing this ecosystem to thrive in the gaps.

    There is much more in the full report on TikTok Live as a propaganda infrastructure built around an attention economy of hate. We are already developing a paper that builds on these findings, drawing on the broader dataset we are now systematically collecting. So, we'd be very happy to connect with others working on similar questions around live-streaming, propaganda, mis-dis, governance, platform cultures, or methodological approaches. If you want to exchange ideas, please feel free to reach out, and keep the conversation going!

    Yours,
    Pieter van Boheemen - Post-X Society
    Marcus Bösch - University of Münster
    Giulia Costanzo - Politecnico di Milano
    Tom Divon - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
    Lea Frühwirth - CeMAS (Center für Monitoring, Analyse und Strategie)
    Esther Hammelburg - Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
    Jonathan Klüser - University of Zurich
    Laura Postma - Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision
    Edan Ring (remote) - Ben Gurion University of the Negev and ISOC-IL
    Nina Steffen - University of Zurich
    Xinlu Wang - Tsinghua University

    --




    Tom Divon
    Creators & Platforms Researcher
    Dept. of Communication & Journalism, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
    Sammy Ofer School of Communications, IDC, Herzliya
    Tel: +972-547-532681

    Website: https://tomdivon.com/
    Co-Founder: The Content Creator Scholars Network
    Publications:
    >> Playful Activism: Memetic Performances of Palestinian Resistance in TikTok #Challenges
    >> #JewishTikTok: The JewToks' Fight against Antisemitism
    >> Serious TikTok: Can You Learn About the Holocaust in 60 Seconds?
    >> Playful Trauma: TikTok Creators and the Use of the Platformed Body in Times of War
    >> Platform gaslighting: A user-centric insight into social media corporate communications of content moderation
    >> The unsolicited algorithm: unveiling gendered harms and (non)consent in apple iOS features
    >> The sound of disinformation: TikTok, computational propaganda, and the invasion of Ukraine
    >> Youthful Platform Commemoration: TikTok as a Frontier for Holocaust Education and Memory




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