Populist Radical Right Communication on TikTok: The Case of Reform UK in the 2024 General Election

This article examines Reform UK’s use of TikTok during the 2024 United Kingdom general election, focusing on platform affordances, populist radical right (PRR) communication features, and audience engagement. Based on a qualitative content analysis of all TikTok posts published during the official campaign, the study analyzes how an underexplored PRR party operated on a platform commonly associated with participatory and vernacular political communication. The findings reveal a highly controlled strategy characterized by professionalized production, limited interactivity, and strong leadership centrality. Despite TikTok’s participatory affordances, Reform UK primarily used the platform as a broadcast channel, reproducing communication logics identified in previous research on PRR digital campaigning. Patterns of audience engagement suggest that this limited adaptation to TikTok’s specific affordances may reflect a form of selective non-adaptation that can constitute a strategically coherent communication logic, challenging platform-deterministic assumptions and highlighting the enduring influence of ideological and organizational factors in political communication on emerging platforms.