The internet is regularly blamed to play a major role in the surge of populist radical right parties such as the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). While
previous studies have already established a generally positive association between internet use and a higher propensity to vote for the AfD, we know little
about the conditionalities of this effect. Based on theories about cognitive dissonance, I argue that the high choice environment of the internet offers
populist radical right actors a tool to efficiently activate voters with a nativist political predisposition. Using data from the German Longitudinal Election
Study in 2016/17, I find that using the internet for political information is associated with a substantively higher propensity to vote for the AfD only among individuals who already had a political predisposition that was consistend with the party’s political agenda. The results highlight the important role of widespread far-right worldviews in the electorate for the rise of a populist radical right party in Germany. The internet mainly worked as an amplifier as
it helped the AfD to activate its potential electorate.
