Publication
HEIO’s final report on the online campaign around the elections of 29 October 2025
Initiated and coordinated by Post-X Society, with the University of Amsterdam, AI Forensics, Trollrensics and Justice for Prosperity.
As far as we could judge, the elections were free and fair, but under considerable digital pressure. We saw a wave of AI-generated content, coordinated manipulation campaigns, failing moderation by the platforms, and the rise of new ways to spread disinformation and hate.
These were the least transparent elections in recent Dutch history.
From the HEIO final report
~23,000
accounts from Vietnam pumped up likes on Frans Timmermans’s Facebook page.
74 million
views were drawn by a single coordinated Facebook page (June–October 2025), briefly the most popular political page in the Netherlands.
#2
in the Spotify Top 50: an AI-generated anti-asylum-centre song, behind thousands of TikTok videos.
What we saw
- Coordinated fake networks from Vietnam and from Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, amplifying polarising and far-right content.
- Livestreams, especially on TikTok, where death threats, antisemitism and racism went unchallenged.
- Very new accounts appearing prominently in the algorithmic feeds: a sign of manipulation of the recommendation systems.
- More than 2,000 posts about electoral fraud on X.
- The least transparent election ever when it comes to political advertising: Meta and Google banned it. The platforms kept poor advertising libraries.
The report’s message: urgent action is needed to increase transparency, hold actors to account and strengthen monitoring.
Monitoring around your elections?