Why this isn’t Britain’s TikTok election
And why the next one might be
![Parliament News Newsagents in Westminster.](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240615_BRP507.jpg)
This has already been the year of the TikTok election. In Pakistan the social-media app rallied rural youth to support Imran Khan, an imprisoned former prime minister. In Indonesia Prabowo Subianto, a strongman with a dodgy human-rights record, won the internet—and the presidency—with his dad-dancing. In France Jordan Bardella, a slick 28-year-old at the head of the party list for National Rally, a hard-right party, used TikTok to smooth a path to victory in the European parliamentary elections on June 9th.
Explore more
More from Britain
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240914_BRD001.jpg)
The harmony between Labour and Britain’s trade unions
They agree on the labour market above all
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240914_BRP501.jpg)
Britain’s submarines are at sea for too long—or not at all
No sunlight or fresh food for months
What’s next for Britain and the EU?
Brexit’s economic toll is now clear. But the path forward is murky
Britain’s ban on arms sales to Israel mixes politics and legalism
The government has outlined grounds for concern but not a coherent rationale
Britain and the EU find it easier to talk about guns than butter
But closer ties in foreign and security policy are still not easy to forge