A news program aired by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF has presented a report on so-called Christfluencers—Christians sharing their faith on social media—framing them as radical and potentially dangerous. The report, on the ZIB1 news show, was hostile towards Christians expressing their faith while failing to comment on online content creators from any other faith. Even Islamic influencers pushing hateful messages were ignored by the program.
The segment failed to point to any kind of ‘extremism’ in the ‘Christfluencers’ beyond that of sharing their faith. In a predominantly left-leaning societal environment, traditional Christian views—which tend to be conservative—are now being labeled problematic, or even extremist, simply because they diverge from mainstream ideological expectations.
Reactions on social media pointed out the hypocrisy of the state broadcaster, with one user saying the program was “trying to make us believe the Christfluencers are the big problem for young people,” adding the hashtag “elephant in the room.”
Die #ZIB versucht uns gerade weiszumachen, dass bei den religiösen Influencern auf Tiktok die Christfluencer das große Problem für die Jugend sind und konservative Werte verbreiten .. Man glaubt es alles einfach nimmer!!! 😶🌫️#elefantimraum
While Christians who lead peaceful lives based on the Bible’s emphasis on humility, peace, and love of neighbor are scrutinized, Islamist influencers appear to generate far less concern, despite the fact that online radicalization has been behind several attempted terrorist attacks.
One example of Islamist radicalization on the TikTok platform is the German-based account Muslim Interaktiv, which was active and tolerated from March 2020, except for brief temporary holds, until its suspension after Germany banned the organization on November 5, 2025. The group used TikTok heavily for Islamist outreach, posting short, pop-culture-style videos to attract young audiences, growing rapidly from 2022 to 2024 and counting around 19,000 followers when it was banned.
Publicly living out the Christian faith has come under mounting scrutiny in Europe. The infamous Finnish ‘Bible tweet case’ against MP Päivi Räsänen and Bishop Juhana Pohjola showcased that even sharing passages from the Bible on social media can now be labeled as ‘hate speech.’
Zolta Győri is a journalist at europeanconservative.com.
