Examining Online Behaviors of Violent and Non-Violent Right-Wing Extremists During Peak Posting Days
May 16, 2024
Despite the ongoing need for practitioners to identify violent extremists online before their engagement in violence offline, little is empirically known about their digital footprints generally or differences in their posting behaviors compared to their non-violent counterparts particularly – especially on high-frequency posting days. Content analysis was used to examine postings from a unique sample ...
Communities of Hateful Practice: The collective learning of accelerationist right-wing extremists, with a case study of the Halle synagogue attack
September 18, 2023
In the past, far-right aggression predominantly focused on national settings and street terror against minorities; today, however, it is increasingly embedded in global networks and acts within a strategic framework aimed at revolution, targeting the liberal order as such. Ideologically combining antisemitism, racism, and anti-feminism/anti-LGBTQI, adherents of this movement see modern societies as degenerate and ...
Signposts – A background report on right-wing extremist online subcultures
September 18, 2023
“Signposts” provides background information on the publications of the project “Countering Radicalisation in Right-Wing Extremist Online Subcultures” funded by the Federal Ministry of Justice (BMJ). In the first part of this report, a brief historical overview of right-wing extremist internet use in Germany is given. The report describes how, since the emergence of the internet, ...
Detours and Diversions Online Strategies for the Dissemination of Right-Wing Extremist Content
September 18, 2023
Since the beginning of 2021, ISD Germany has been researching right-wing extremist actors on alternative platforms on the internet. Three reports were published as part of the German Federal Ministry for Justice (BMJ)-funded project “Countering radicalisation in right-wing extremist online subcultures”. The last report in 2021, “Detours and Diversions – Online Strategies for the Dissemination ...
In the Blind Spot – How right-wing extremists use alternative platforms for radicalisation
September 18, 2023
This report provides a summary of the expert conference “Im toten Winkel – Wie Rechtsextreme alternative Online-Plattformen zur Radikalisierung nutzen” (In the blind spot – How right-wing extremists use alternative online platforms for radicalisation), which was held as part of the project “Countering radicalisation in right-wing extremist online subcultures” funded by the German Federal Ministry ...
Examining Online Indicators of Extremism among Violent and Non-Violent Right-Wing Extremists
September 18, 2023
Although there is an ongoing need for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to identify and assess the online activities of violent extremists prior to their engagement in violence offline, little is empirically known about their online posting patterns generally or differences in their online patterns compared to non-violent extremists who share similar ideological beliefs particularly. ...
Comparing the Online Posting Behaviors of Violent and Non-Violent Right-Wing Extremists
September 18, 2023
Despite the ongoing need for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to identify and assess the online activities of violent extremists prior to their engagement in violence offline, little is empirically known about their online behaviors generally or differences in their posting behaviors compared to non-violent extremists who share similar ideological beliefs particularly. In this study, we ...
Countering terrorism or criminalizing curiosity? The troubled history of UK responses to right-wing and other extremism
September 18, 2023
The growth of right-wing extremism, especially where it segues into hate crime and terrorism, poses new challenges for governments, not least because its perpetrators are typically lone actors, often radicalized online. The United Kingdom has struggled to define, tackle or legitimate against extremism, though it already has an extensive array of terrorism-related offences that target ...
Online Networks of the Italian and German Extreme Right
September 18, 2023
This article applies instruments of social network analysis to a study of communication networks within the Italian and German extremist right. Web links between organizational websites are used as a proxy. Indeed, extremist groups increasingly use and abuse the Internet for their propaganda and their recruitment, and also for their internal communication. The analysis includes ...