Politics in Sweden: Why is the right thrashing the left in Swedish social media?

[Celerity]

Right-wing influencers are increasingly dominating Swedish social media. Is this a sign that US-owned platforms are favoring politicians in the Trump mould, or does the right just have the better tunes at the moment, asks James Savage.

https://www.thelocal.se/20251010/why-is-the-right-thrashing-the-left-in-swedish-social-media/

https://archive.ph/r8Aym


Right-wing political influencer Henrik Jönsson is one of the most powerful people in Swedish social media. Photo: Jessica Gow / TT

If engagement on social media decided seats in parliament, Sweden’s largest populist-right party would have 70 seats. The far-right Alternative for Sweden and the conservative Citizens Coalition (Medborgerlig Samling) would get forty seats between them. Add these up and the trio roughly is on a par with the combined forces of the Social Democrats, Greens and the Left Party. According to the Power Barometer (Maktbarometern), which measures which Swedish social media accounts get the most engagement, the Sweden Democrats and personalities linked to them came top on almost every platform.

On YouTube, the biggest dose of politics comes from Riks, a channel founded by the Sweden Democrats. Among the most popular videos this week: a report on a social media video from right-wing influencer Joakim Lamotte telling Israel, which had just arrested Greta Thunberg, to “keep her.” The original video itself has had more than 1.5 million views on Facebook. This combination of biting humour and personal attacks is typical of populist-right content on social media. Emmanuel Karlsten, chairman of Medieakademien which published the study, reckons this, rather than algorithms favouring the right, is the key to their success:

“Before 2017 it was the Left that was biting, pointed and funny. They were poking fun at angry, white men. That has changed completely.” “We’ve seen pendulum swings like this in other countries too. Here the pendulum is swinging against political correctness.” The tilt to the right seems to be more pronounced in Sweden than in the US, where there's a flourishing ecosystem of more left-liberal political influencers, though there are similarities between Sweden and Germany, where the far-right Alternative for Deutschland dominates social media.

The Sweden Democrats and their supporters got started earlier on social media Karlsten argues, which helped them sharpen their game. The fact that they were once largely shut out of mainstream media meant they were forced to take social channels seriously, Karlsten argues. Libertarian YouTuber Henrik Jönsson is another right-wing force to be reckoned with. Jönsson’s preoccupations include opposing climate policies and public service broadcasting. While he’s only the ninth most powerful account on YouTube overall, he’s the most powerful individual with a political focus on the platform in Sweden. He’s also the second most powerful person on X.

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[yardwork]

1. The right wingers have all the money.

That's why they're right-wingers. The billionaires don't want to share.

[JI7]

2. How much of their audience is from the US ?

The right wing message is simple and appeals to people that get off on hate.