Poland’s conservative ruling party, Law and Justice party (PiS), has become the latest political group in the country to join social media platform TikTok, as it seeks to appeal in particular to young voters ahead of elections this autumn.
In the first video posted to the account, PiS campaign manager Tomasz Poręba says it aims to challenge the “very radical anti-PiS messages” that have “flooded social media”.
He referenced specifically popular trends used to criticise the government, such as typing eight asterisks in the form ***** ***, which stands for “J***ć PiS” (F**k PiS).
@pis_org PiS wchodzi na Tik Toka – będziemy tu opowiadać Wam o tym jaką Polskę budujemy! #tomaszporęba #prawoisprawiedliwosc #PiS #dlaciebie ♬ original sound – Prawo i Sprawiedliwość
Poręba claims that these have become widespread due to “a huge misunderstanding of what PiS is actually doing”. He states that PiS wants to use its TikTok account to promote a different image of their party, unlike “the one that is being forced into your heads, which has nothing to do with reality”.
In the video, which has been viewed over 22,000 times, Poręba notes how under the previous government – led by the centrist Civic Platform (PO) – Poles were forced “to move to London to work as dishwashers” whereas PiS has now delivered on its promises to improve standards of living.
In the only two videos posted subsequently so far, PiS further attacks the record of the PO from the time it was in power between 2007 and 2015, suggesting that it took a soft line towards Russia.
@pis_org Dlaczego rząd PO/PSL umorzył 200 miliardów złotych długi Gazpromowi? #prawoisprawiedliwosc #donaldtusk #pis #dla #dlaciebie #polska #polityka #bezpiecznapolska #bezpieczeństwo #10pytandotuska ♬ original sound – Prawo i Sprawiedliwość
PO itself has been active on TikTok since February last year. In a recent video, one of its MPs, Aleksandra Gajewska, criticised the PiS education minister for suggesting that mobile phones could be banned from schools.
The party’s leader, Donald Tusk, also has a large personal following on the platform, with almost 150,000 followers.
@platforma.obywatelska CZARNEK chce zakazać telefonów w szkołach! #polityka #politics #gajewska #czarnek #czarnekout #szkoła #telefon ♬ dźwięk oryginalny – Platforma Obywatelska
Other Polish parties – including The Left (Lewica), the second largest opposition group, and the hard-right United Poland (Solidarna Polska), a coalition partner of PiS – have also joined TikTok. Lewica was a relatively early adopter, posting its first video in July 2020.
The far-right Confederation (Konfederacja), which has been banned from Facebook for spreading Covid disinformation and hate speech, still operates freely on TikTok, though some of its videos have been marked with warning labels from the platform encouring viewers to “learn the facts about COVID-19”.
One of Confederation’s leaders, Sławomir Mentzen, is Poland’s most popular politician on TikTok, with almost 600,000 followers. He is followed by Robert Biedron, a leader of The Left, with over 537,000 followers.
Polish far-right party @KONFEDERACJA_ has been banned from Facebook for "repeated violations" of rules against Covid disinformation and hate speech.@Meta's decision was criticised by two Polish government officials, who called it a threat to free speech https://t.co/pH3ocltS2U
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 5, 2022
While PiS is the last of Poland’s major parties to join TikTok, its 73-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński – who has no public social media accounts of his own – has appeared on the platform in the past.
In 2020, he featured in a video published by the PiS Youth Forum (pictured at the top of this article) in which he encouraged people to support legislation strengthening animal rights. Last year he also appeared in a video posted by the personal account of PiS deputy foreign minister Piotr Wawrzyk.
In some countries, officials have expressed concern over the use of TikTok by public figures, given its Chinese ownership. In December, the US House of Representatives banned TikTok from electronic devices managed by it.
NEW: US House bans TikTok from official electronic devices, according to an internal notice sent to staff https://t.co/wsR2BqjetM
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) December 28, 2022
The platform is especially popular amongst young people, with the majority of its over 1 billion users being under the age of 24. They are a group PiS generally performs poorly among. At the last parliamentary elections, it won only 26% of votes among those aged 18-29 compared to 44% among all voters.
Since then, opinion polls have shown young people to hold ever more liberal and left-wing social views, at odds with PiS’s conservative agenda. The introduction of a near-total ban on abortion in 2021 also prompted large-scale protests against the ruling party, with young people especially prominent.
Ahead of elections this autumn, PiS continues to lead in polling but without enough support to ensure being able to form the parliamentary majority what would give it an unprecedented third term in office.
Left-wing views among young Poles have reached their highest ever level in regular polling conducted since the fall of communism in 1989.
For the first time, left-wing views are stronger among the young than both right-wing and centrist ones https://t.co/bn95iYTOIe
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 8, 2021
Main image credit: forummlodychpis/TikTok (screenshot)
Anna Hackett is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a recent graduate of European Studies from Trinity College Dublin and has had previous journalistic experience with the Irish Independent News & Media group.
