Online Library

This paper analyzes the meaning of iconography that constitute memes by reviewing a collection of memes propagated on social media related to the Kyle Rittenhouse shooting of protestors in Wisconsin. The authors collected 355 images from 37,774 tweets, supplemented by images found in Facebook groups, militia forums, and right-wing meme repositories related to Kyle Rittenhouse. The paper leads with an introduction to the American “alt-right” movement and the Rittenhouse shootings. The paper’s methodology deconstructs each meme into a set of constituent parts. This provides a process for classifying memes based on their templates, “aesthetic,” branding, events, iconography, and seemingly ambiguous references. This allows researchers to better attribute memes to specific socio-political and cultural groups, analyze the intent of the messaging, and situate memes in the broader knowledge base that, over time, solidifies into its own entity with its own kind of social and political agency.

This report aims to provide a first look into Irish far-right activity on the messaging app, Telegram, where the movement is operating both as identifiable groups and influencers, and anonymously-run channels and groups.

The report looks at the activity across 34 such Telegram channels through the lens of a series of case studies where content posted on these channels resulted in real life consequences. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, the report examines the tactics, language and trends within these channels, providing much-needed detail on the activity of the Irish far-right online.

Facebook est utilise par près de 1.5 milliard de personne autour du monde. Si la majorité d’entre eux l’utilisent bienveillamment, il y en a parmi eux qui utilisent cette plateforme à de mauvaises fins. De ce fait, Facebook a créé un ensemble de conditions et de règlements, les Standards de la communauté, détaillant les contenus publiables et non-publiables sur ce réseau social. Par exemple, Facebook interdit et supprime les propos haineux, définis comme un ‘contenu qui cible des personnes en raison de leur race, leur ethnicité, leur origine nationale, leur religion, leur sexe, leur orientation sexuelle, leur infirmité, ou leur état de santé réel ou supposé’. Alors que Facebook proscrit les propos haineux, il arrive que des contenus désagréables ou perturbants qui n’enfreignent toute fois pas les conditions d’utilisation de Facebook soient publiés.

Pour contrer ce genre de contenu extrémiste ou désagréable, Facebook a publiquement déclaré que la pratique du contre-discours, ainsi que les outils fournis pour son développement, doivent jouer un rôle critique. Selon Facebook, cette méthode n’est pas seulement probablement la plus efficace d’adresser l’extrémisme en ligne, mais a également de meilleures chance d’y succéder à long-terme.

L’utilisation du contre-discours est une réaction participative et couramment employée contre l’extrémisme et le contenu haineux. En effet, les publications Facebook à contenu extrémiste sont souvent reçues avec désaccord et dérision, ainsi qu’avec des contre-campagnes. Il est avantageux de combattre l’extrémisme ainsi puisque cette méthode est plus rapide, plus flexible, responsive et capable de le combattre n’importe où et dans n’importe quelle langue – tout en promouvant le principe d’espaces publiques ouverts à la libre expression. De plus, les formes prises par ce contre-discours sont toutes aussi variées que l’extrémisme auquel elles s’opposent. Elles ne sont pas toujours aussi effectives qu’elles ne pourraient l’être, et il faut également considérer la possibilité que le contre-discourspourrait éventuellement être contre-productif.

In the recent past, the numbers of religiously- and politically-motivated terrorist attacks have increased, inevitably raising the question of effective measures to prevent further terrorist attacks. Empirical studies related to school shootings have shown that school shooters reliably (directly and indirectly) disclosed their intentions or plans prior to the attack, a phenomenon termed leaking or leakage. Leaking has been used for preventive purposes in this area of research. Recent research has indicated that leaking was also present prior to politically and religiously motivated terrorist attacks. In order to determine the current state of knowledge about leaking related to these offenses, we conducted a review of the international literature on religiously and politically motivated terrorist attacks. Up to 90% of the offenders showed some type of leaking prior to the attacks. A range of different forms of leaking could be observed. Leaking often occurred in the form of verbal communication with family and friends and/or via communication over the Internet. Terrorist offenders apparently tend to show leaking more often than other groups of mass murderers. Findings regarding similarities and dissimilarities in leaking between religiously motivated, jihadist and politically-motivated, far-right terrorist attacks were contradictory. We discuss the implications of these findings for practice and research as well as the strengths and possible weaknesses of the leaking concept.

This report concerns itself with terrorist technical innovation, particularly with regards to terrorists’ incorporation of emerging technologies into their practices. More specifically, it investigates, through the elaboration of a theoretical learning framework, how terrorist groups can adopt the practices of ideological enemies operating in different security, ideological and political environments. It does so through a study of three cases of emerging technology use by Islamic State (IS) and racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists (REMVE), which shed light on why ideologically diverse groups might adopt practices from each other.

VOX-Pol Blog post.