Post-Digital Cultures of the Far Right (2019) (original) (raw)

The Transnationalization of the Extreme Right and the Use of the Internet

Like many other political actors, the extreme right is currently expanding beyond national borders, and, as with any civil society organization, the Internet is assuming a growing role in achieving this goal. To date, however, this topic is understudied. In this article, aiming to empirically filling this gap, we shall explore the new tactics of the extreme right in Europe and the USA in the context of transnational politics. Namely, we investigate the degree and forms of extreme right transnationalization (in terms of mobilization, issues, targets, action strategies, and organizational contacts) and the potential role of the Internet in these developments. The analysis combines qualitative and quantitative data derived from 54 interviews with representatives of extreme right organizations in six European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Spain) and the USA with a formalized Web content analysis of 336 right-wing websites. We will compare different types of right-wing groups which compose the radical right family (from political parties to associations), underlining the main differences and similarities across groups and across countries.

A Transnational Extreme Right? New Right-Wing Tactics and the Use of the Internet

2014

Th e Internet is assuming a growing importance for civ il society organizations, including the radical ones, for the freedom it offers to express political claims and for organizing mobilization and strategies, both nationally and tr ansnationally. A crucial subject for scientific enquiry, as well as for policy analysts, is therefo re to empirically investigate the role of this medium as a potential substitute for important face -to-face social and political processes. In this article, we combine quantitative and qualitati ve data derived from 45 interviews with representatives of the main extreme right organizat ions in six European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK) and the USA, as well as a formalized web content analysis of 336 right-wing websites, and will inves tigate the degree and forms of ‘trasnationalization’ of the extreme right (in term s of mobilization, issues, targets, organizational contacts, etc.) and show how these d evelopments can be relat...

The Alt-Right's Platformization of Fascism and a New Left's Digital United Front

Democratic Communique, 2019

Platforms constitute a political communications battlespace in which a plurality of social actors-from Left to Right-struggle for recognition and attention, try to organize consent to their ideologies, and seek to influence how people think and behave. In the spirit of this special issue's investigation of the tactical political uses of new media to bring about social change, this article demonstrates how contemporary platforms are a space of battle, fought over by the alt-right's white nationalist fascists and a new Left's "digital united front." Drawing upon numerous examples of fascist and antifascist tactical interventions across the platforms, this article is optimistic that the power of the alt-right to win hearts and minds may be waning due to the growth and widespread support for the Left's digital united front. To this end, this article's first section contextualizes the revival of the hard Right's "authoritarian populism" under the auspices of the US Trump presidency and defines the contemporary "alt-right." The article's second section surveys the alt-right's political uses of platforms, and highlights some of these platforms' affordances to the alt-right's reach and ideological influence. The third section conceptualizes the Left's "digital united front," and catalogues some of its tactics for countering platform fascists: no-platforming, doxing, video ideology critique, and memes. This article's overview of the alt-right's platformization of fascism and the Left's digital united front is not comprehensive, but aims to highlight some salient instances of "what's being done" by the alt-right to platform fascism, and "what's being done" by the Left to disrupt this threat. By scrutinizing the alt-right's platformization of fascism and championing the Left's digital united front, this article aims to contribute to knowledge about the politics of tactical media in the age of platforms, and be a praxiological primer for battling the alt-right. The conclusion critically assesses the notion that the US has become a "fascist" country.

Online Hate: From the Far-Right to the 'Alt-Right' and from the Margins to the Mainstream

Online Othering: Exploring violence and discrimination on the web, 2019

In the 1990s and early 2000s, there was much discussion about the democratic and anti-democratic implications of the internet, the latter particularly focused on the far-right using it to spread hate and recruit. Despite this, the American far-right did not harness it quickly, effectively or widely. More recently though, they have experienced a resurgence and mainstreaming, benefitting greatly from social media. This chapter will examine the history of the American far-right's use of the internet in light of this, in respect to: 1. How this history developed in response to political changes and emerging technologies; 2. How it reflected and changed the status of such movements and their brand of hate; and 3. The relationship between online activity and traditional forms and methods of communication.

The Digital Golden Dawn: Emergence of a nationalist-racist digital mainstream

This chapter deals with the rising fascist and racist political online networks in Greece, examining the ways in which they are accommodated within the digital public sphere. The extreme racist and fascist (‘popular nationalist’) party Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) is the third party in Greece even after the victory of the radical left party Syriza in January 2015. While research has shown the links between this rise and extreme austerity measures (Bosco and Verney, 2012), this chapter is concerned with the actual strategies and tactics used by the Greek extreme right in online spaces. Despite analyses that show the contrary (Psarras, 2010), Golden Dawn speaks of itself as excluded from the mainstream media, and has relied considerably on the internet. The task of the present chapter is therefore to map the extreme right internet in Greece, and show the connections and networks they have built in order to provide insights into the kind of online presence that the Golden Dawn and its affiliates have. The chapter argues that the kind of online presence that the Golden Dawn and its affiliates have acquired is the result of a mutual accommodation and adjustment between the Golden Dawn, digital corporations, the Greek state, and civil society. In the end, rather than been excluded or marginalized, Golden Dawn rhetorics, practices and discourses have adjusted to, and infiltrated the digital mainstream.