Social media shapes youth-led European protests and riots

BBC News has examined how social media and popular culture are shaping the youth-led protests that have spread across Europe in recent weeks. BBC News said demonstrations had taken place in France, Germany, Italy and Spain, and that some had turned violent. The broadcasts also listed Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, Albania, Serbia and Italy among the countries affected.

BBC News reported that protest-related content had drawn on The Hunger Games, including the line 'if we burn, you burn', the anti-fascist anthem Bella Ciao, the anime series One Piece and the musical Les Misérables. A new Hunger Games film was in cinemas that week. Nayana Prakash, a researcher specialising in cyber security, misinformation, AI and geopolitics, said the franchise represented a successful if bloody protest and a relevant metaphor for removing an old regime.

According to BBC News, Prakash said popular culture and real life take inspiration from each other. For many young people, she said, popular culture and the media were where they learned about successful revolutions and protests, more than their own countries' histories.

Prakash said protesters were turning to TikTok and Instagram this time, after the Arab Spring generation had used Twitter and Facebook. BBC News reported that the Belgian interior minister had criticised what he called the TikTok-isation of protest. Prakash said people were learning about protests from social media and joining in after seeing events in other countries, including India, Nepal and Bangladesh. She also warned against treating TikTok and Instagram simply as foreign influences, saying the issues were raised by citizens and needed to be taken seriously.

Asked whether protesters were more interested in making content than pursuing a cause, Prakash said: 'why not both?' She said memes and popular-culture references allowed protests to be serious and driven by anger and frustration while also being playful. She described Gen Z as savvy about being watched online and said governments had been slow to realise that censoring posts later could not undo their spread.

Prakash rejected the idea of a homogenised protest culture. She said the common language was solidarity rather than sameness, and that image- and video-led platforms helped people build links across different countries and languages. Asked whether the protests could reach the UK, she said that a few weeks earlier she would have said no, but now thought it was a possibility. BBC News reported that she pointed to smaller campus protests and, separately, riots and fascist marches in the UK, and said it might only be a matter of time before some version spread there.