Erik Uden
Erik Uden (26 March 2003 on Norderney) is a German political and online activist as well as developer in the field of decentralized social networks. He serves as an ordinary member of the state executive board of Die Linke Lower Saxony and is a key figure in shaping decentralized social networks like Mastodon within the German-speaking region. Uden has drawn particular attention for making repeatedly radical anti-zionist statements. He is employed by the Member of the Bundestag Anne-Mieke Bremer.
Life
Uden grew up as a child on Norderney, one of the East Frisian Islands, and moved to the town of Norden at the age of ten. There, he attended the Ulrichsgymnasium Norden. It was also there that his initial political ambitions began, within the town's youth parliament.
Digital rights activism
A key focus of Uden's work regarding internet policy is decentralized social networks. He advocates for free, federated communication platforms as an alternative to commercial, centralized social networks. In this context, he is ACTIVE in the Fediverse as a developer and operator, contributing to the technical maintenance of the Mastodon servers troet.cafe, muenchen.social, and mastodon.de. Uden views decentralized networks like Mastodon as a contribution to strengthening democracy.
Party politics
Uden was involved in an election campaign for Die Linke before the 2024 EU election at a public school in Sittensen in Lower Saxony. and has been a member of the state board of Die Linke Niedersachsen since his election for two years at the state party conference in June 2025.
Erik Uden participated in the Founding Conference of Your Party, a democratic socialist party in Great Britain initiated by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, in November 2025 and delivered a welcoming address on behalf of Die Linke. He also attended the foundation of its Scottish Branch.
Appearance on Be Surveiled!
On the ZDF show Lass dich überwachen! on September 20, 2023, then cybersecurity expert Erik Uden demonstrated the dangers of the digital footprint to Jan Böhmermann.
The editorial team had secretly monitored him for days and finally lured him in with a peach, relying solely on publicly accessible data such as his public CV and real-time posts on his travel blog. In recognition of this vivid demonstration of social engineering methods, he was awarded an internship at Mastodon.
Anti-Zionism Resolution by Die Linke Lower Saxony
Uden's involvement in the controversial anti-Zionism resolution adopted by the Lower Saxony state branch of Die Linke (The Left Party) drew nationwide attention. The adoption of the document, which had emerged from a drafting and discussion process initiated by Uden, sparked massive criticism both within the party and among the general public. The resolution triggered a fierce controversy regarding the distinction between legitimate criticism of Israeli government policy and Israel-related antisemitism.
The incident had far-reaching consequences for the party as a whole and exacerbated existing internal rifts regarding how to address the Israel-Gaza War. Prompted by the media reaction, the federal leadership of Die Linke felt compelled to issue a public statement and distance itself from the Lower Saxony state branch's positions in order to avert further reputational damage to the party. The debate sparked by the resolution culminated in internal crisis meetings and was widely perceived in the German media as emblematic of the deep divisions within Die Linke regarding the debate on antisemitism. Furthermore, Uden's motion drew the renewed attention of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution to the Lower Saxony branch of Die Linke, prompting the agency to publicly announce that it would examine the matter.
GDR
In June 2026, Uden once again faced criticism amidst a media debate regarding stalinist and support for the GDR tendencies within the youth organization Linksjugend ['solid]. This was prompted, in part, by investigations conducted by Bayerischer Rundfunk. These investigations revealed that Uden was listed in the imprint of the Linksjugend's federal working group on "Agitation and Propaganda" (abbreviated "BAK AgitProp"), a group that had come under fire for disseminating totalitarian narratives.
Furthermore, Uden faced specific criticism for publicly displaying a flag of East Germany at a federal congress of the Linksjugend (the Left Party's youth organization). The incidents surrounding the BAK AgitProp and the display of GDR symbolism sparked both internal party and public controversies regarding the toleration of authoritarian ideologies within the youth organization of Die Linke and how Members of the Bundestag dealt with these currents.