Netherlands
The list of individuals and creators associated with news in the Netherlands is extremely sparse and mostly populated by journalists or authors who are associated with traditional media brands such as De Telegraaf and De Volkskrant or with the public broadcaster NOS.
A few US and British YouTubers and TikTokkers also get a mention as English is widely spoken in the Netherlands but overall news on social media is dominated by Dutch voices (mostly older men) and mainstream news brands. The low number of mentions for Dutch creators is consistent with a slower adoption of video networks such as YouTube and TikTok for news compared with many other countries.
One of the most widely mentioned social media accounts in the Netherlands is Cestmocro, an anonymous news meme account aimed at younger users. It is the most popular news account on Instagram (1.2m followers) and has taken a strong pro-Palestinian stance over the Gaza conflict. We find a range of other Palestinian supporting creators mentioned by younger Dutch respondents including Motaz Azaiza, a Palestinian citizen journalist and aid worker from Gaza whose footage during the early stages of the conflict regularly went viral. The Palestinian Eye Instagram account was also widely mentioned.
RapNieuwsTV is another influential Instagram account (634,000 subscribers) which posts on a variety of topics, including music and general news. A study by the Dutch media regulator (Commissariaat voor de Media) found that its news was trusted by less than a fifth of the young people that use or follow it.
Columnists associated with traditional media brands include Wierd Duk, who is a journalist and historian who hosts a weekly podcast and appears regularly as a commentator on Dutch radio and television. Maarten Keulemans is a science journalist who won awards for his coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic. He is known for engaging with the public’s questions on social media, embodying a new style of transparent science journalism. Arjen Lubach is a Dutch satirist, comedian, and late-night talk show host. His show has become a popular source of news for younger people, according to research studies, because it provides important information and context on topical stories in an engaging way. Lubach became widely known for his 2017 viral spoof video (America First, Netherlands Second) aimed at the Trump administration, which gained over 30m views.
Also appealing to that younger audience is a teenage news creator who goes by the name Bender (real name Benjamin Buit). He has almost half a million followers on TikTok and also produces content for YouTube and Instagram. He calls himself a humorous journalist with a critical edge’ and is frequently found at demonstrations and other public events. He asks for financial support from his followers.
Jan Roos is a journalist and YouTube personality known for his role as co-host of RoddelPraat, an online show focused on Dutch celebrity gossip (300,000 subscribers on YouTube). His blunt style has also led to controversy and legal challenges.
Enzo Knol is probably the best-known Dutch creator, having posted a video to YouTube every day since 2013. He has 3m followers on YouTube and almost 2m on TikTok, but his focus is travel, challenges, and other content that is unrelated to news.
Proportion that regularly pay attention to creators/influencers in social and video networks
11%
(22/24)
Proportion that regularly pay attention to news brands/journalists in social and video networks
17%
(21/24)
Gender balance
14
of the top 15 individuals are men
These lists represent the individuals most mentioned by respondents to our 2025 and 2024 Digital News Report surveys in the context of news and social media and video networks. Respondents who used Facebook, YouTube, X, Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok for news were asked where they paid most attention – including options for traditional news media/journalists, digital-first news outlets not associated with traditional media, creators/personalities who mostly focus on the news, creators/personalities who occasionally focus on the news. For each type, we asked respondents to name up to three examples of who they paid attention to. We then counted the individuals mostly using a tool called OpenRefine to help us use a semi-automated approach to clean the data (e.g. resolve misspellings or alternative names, remove duplicates etc.). In parallel, we also used ChatGPT5 to process and recode the original data, and to identify the most mentioned individuals to give us a way of comparing results. Further details on the tools we used and on small differences in methodology between 2024 and 2025 are provided in our methodology section (link).
Why did you use open fields rather than closed lists to collect the data?
We used open text response boxes, first, because in many countries the most popular news creators and influencers have not yet been identified by previous research. Second, because it would likely not be possible to fully capture the broad and fragmented nature of this ecosystem using a fixed listed of response options. And third, because we wanted to adopt an audience-centric approach whereby respondents could enter names that they considered news sources to them, even if they did not meet accepted standards or definitions within academia or the journalistic profession. This means that many of the names we list here would perhaps have been excluded under a more top-down approach.
How definitive is the order of the named individuals in each country?
In some cases, especially near the bottom the list, differences in the number of mentions for individuals are very small. Given our survey methodology, and the associated margin of error, the precise rank order should be read as indicative rather than definitive. Many other individuals were mentioned by respondents in the context of news, even if they do not make the top 15 using our approach. The lists should therefore be seen as indicative of some of the top news individuals in each country.
Why are some popular individuals with high follower counts lower down the list than individuals with high follower counts?
There are a number of possible reasons for this. First, some popular creators such as musicians and comedians are known more for entertainment than for news and their follower counts are often higher as a result. This means that even if they do occasionally talk about news related issues, not all of their followers will be aware of it. Second, some individuals working for traditional media may have relatively low personal followings but are widely distributed via social accounts of news brands. Third, there is a margin of error in surveys such as this (see previous answer) that needs to be borne in mind.
Did you exclude any individuals or other entries as part of the process?
Our lists are inclusive in terms of being faithful to the individual names mentioned by respondents. We removed just a handful of actors, sports stars, and celebrities if we were sure they did not post on any news-related issues. In most cases this did not affect the top 15 names that are published in this report for each country.
Many creators operate as part of collectives or use pseudonyms. How did you deal with these categorisation issues?
In terms of creator collectives or social-first brands, such as the Daily Wire (US) or TLDR News (UK) we followed the lead of our respondents. Where audiences have identified them as individuals, we have tended to categorise these as creators rather than news brands, but where they have mentioned a brand, we included them in our list of news brands. Where it was clear, however, that the brand is the work of one individual (e.g. Es.decirdiario/Sheila Hernández in Spain) we categorised them as an individual and made the connection clear in the description. Many creators use pseudonyms and, in these cases, we combined mentions of these with the real names. Again, we tried to make the connection clear in the description.
How did you deal with politicians and the overlap between politicians and political commentary?
Politicians and businesspeople are also frequently mentioned by survey respondents in the context of news sources on social media, and often have significant followings (e.g. on X, Donald Trump has 109m, Narendra Modi 109m, and Elon Musk 225m). Many politicians are also content creators and commentators who shape public debates. Some content creators have become politicians, and vice versa. We chose to include politicians if they were named by respondents in the context of news, but we have also shaded serving (or recently serving) politicians in grey to make clear the different relationship they often have with news consumers.