Examining the Online Expression of Ideology among Far-Right Extremist Forum Users
September 18, 2023
Over the last decade, there has been an increased focus among researchers on the role of the Internet among actors and groups across the political and ideological spectrum. There has been particular emphasis on the ways that far-right extremists utilize forums and social media to express ideological beliefs through sites affiliated with real-world extremist groups ...
The battle for truth: How online newspaper commenters defend their censored expressions
September 18, 2023
The presence of hate speech in the commentary field of online newspapers is a pressing challenge for free speech policy. We have conducted interviews with 15 people whose comments were censored for posting comments of a racist, discriminatory or hateful nature. What characterizes their self-understanding and enemy images? We found that central to their motivation ...
How Extreme Is The European Far Right? Investigating Overlaps in the German Far-Right Scene on Twitter
September 18, 2023
The aim of the report is to determine the overlaps apparent in the far-right scene on Twitter, and specifically, to ascertain the extent to which different groups on the scene are indeed talking about the same issues in the same way, in spite of apparent differences in tone and underlying ideologies. The authors utilise a ...
Leveraging CDA 230 to Counter Online Extremism
September 18, 2023
This paper, part of the Legal Perspectives on Tech Series, was commissioned in conjunction with the Congressional Counterterrorism Caucus. ...
Online Hate: From the Far-Right to the ‘Alt-Right’ and from the Margins to the Mainstream
September 18, 2023
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 ways in which the far-right were using the Internet to spread hate and recruit members. Despite this common assumption, the American far-right did not harness the Internet quickly, effectively or ...
Pulling Back The Curtain: An Examination Of The English Defence League And Their Use Of Facebook
September 18, 2023
As social media becomes an integral part of our daily lives, and groups seek to utilize this medium to facilitate activism, understanding the nature of these communications and the impact of the content on the individual user becomes a valid area of interest. When one then considers that extremist and terrorist groups have found social ...
Understanding The Collective Identity Of The Radical Right Online: A Mixed-Methods Approach
September 18, 2023
Criminologists have generally agreed that the Internet is not only a tool or resource for right-wing extremists to disseminate ideas and products, but also a site of important identity work, accomplished interactively through the exchange of radical ideas. Online discussion forums, amongst other interactive corners of the Web, have become an essential conduit for the ...
Warblog Without End: Online Anti-Islamic Discourses As Persuadables
September 18, 2023
This dissertation is a critical discourse analysis of how anti-Islamic rhetoric in prominent online forums is articulated within the context of popular discourses of multiculturalism and tolerance. According to Melanie McAlister, perceptions of Muslims within the United States are unique in comparison to other minority groups in that they are almost entirely mediated, whether it ...
Mapping Extremism: The Network Politics Of The Far-Right
September 18, 2023
In recent decades, political parties espousing extreme nationalist, xenophobic, and even outright racist platforms have enjoyed variable success in national elections across Europe. While vibrant research literature has sought to better understand the sources of support for such parties, remarkably little attention has been paid to the interplay between parties and the broader social networks ...
A Dialectical Approach To Online Propaganda: Australia’s United Patriots Front Right Wing Politics And Islamic State
September 18, 2023
This article examines how the United Patriots Front (UPF), an Australian far-right organization, has communicated its ideology with reference to right-wing politics in Australia, Western Europe, and the United States, and through allusions to Islamic State. The investigation uses critical discourse and documentary analysis and a framework derived from the theory of Pierre Bourdieu to ...