About the project

Reclaim TikTok, led by Matthias Killer (M.Sc. Robotics & AI), builds AI-enhanced analytics for democratic political communication on TikTok. The premise: TikTok's algorithmic incentives favour attention-optimised content, which often means populist, polarising or anti-democratic voices. Democratic actors – politicians, civic organisations, journalists – are at a structural disadvantage.

Reclaim TikTok gives them analytics, content insights and strategy support so they can communicate effectively on the platform without abandoning their values.

The project was a winner of N3XTCODER's Open Innovation Programme, took on the AI4Democracy "Levelling the playing field" challenge, and was pitched at re:publica in May 2024.

The challenge

Democratic communicators on TikTok face a measurement gap. Native analytics show what worked but not why. Off-the-shelf social listening tools are built for brands and political operatives with budgets, not for civic organisations or independent journalists. Without insight into what resonates, democratic voices either burn out posting into the void or copy populist tactics they actually disagree with.

The solution

AI-enhanced analytics tailored to democratic political communication. The system analyses content performance, audience engagement and narrative patterns – then surfaces actionable insight that democratic communicators can use to reach more people without compromising their message. Built by a team that spent three weeks doing market research before writing a line of code, to make sure the tool answers questions people are actually asking.

The outcome

• Open Innovation Programme winner, selected from a competitive cohort

• Winner of the AI4Democracy "Levelling the playing field" challenge

• Pitched at re:publica 2024

• Proof of Concept that AI can support democratic discourse rather than undermine it