Pérez-Curiel, C., López-Domínguez, C., Méndez-Muros, S., & Mila-Maldonado, A. (2026). When populism meets artificial intelligence: AI-generated multimedia content and far-right digital campaigning on Instagram and X in the 2024 European elections. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 14, 103611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2026.103611
Summary
This paper investigates the intersection of populist communication and generative artificial intelligence in far-right digital campaigning during the 2024 European Parliament elections. Focusing on two platforms with distinct affordances — Instagram and X — the authors examine how far-right actors incorporated AI-generated multimedia content (imagery and other media) into their electoral messaging. The central argument is that the convergence of populist communication styles and generative AI marks a notable evolution in political campaigning, one that is shaped by the platform environments in which it circulates.
Key Contributions
- Advances understanding of how generative AI tools are being deployed within populist and far-right political campaigning.
- Offers a cross-platform (Instagram and X) perspective on AI-driven electoral communication.
- Situates AI-generated imagery within the broader repertoire of far-right online mobilization, using the 2024 European elections as a concrete case study.
Methods
The study analyses digital campaign content posted to Instagram and X during the 2024 European Parliament elections, with particular attention to AI-generated multimedia content situated within far-right political communication. The comparative platform framing allows the authors to consider how differing affordances shape the deployment of synthetic media.
Findings
- Far-right actors integrated AI-generated multimedia content into their 2024 European election campaigns.
- Platform affordances of Instagram and X shape how AI-generated content is used for far-right messaging.
- The pairing of populist communication styles with generative AI constitutes a distinctive development in campaigning.
- Detailed empirical results are not recoverable from the abstract alone.
Connections
This paper sits at the meeting point of generative-AI media research and studies of far-right online mobilization, and connects closely to work on AI-generated political imagery and far-right visual communication such as Askanius2026-de and Rothut2026-or. Its concern with how platform affordances condition the spread of synthetic and populist content resonates with Hameleers2026-mc on deceptive AI media and with cross-platform studies of far-right networks like Rothut2026-wt.