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

  • Aaron Winter
Chapter
Part of the Palgrave Studies in Cybercrime and Cybersecurity book series (PSCYBER)

Abstract

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 widely. More recently, however, they have experienced a resurgence and mainstreaming, benefitting greatly from social media. This chapter examines the history of their use of the Internet with respect to: (1) how this 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 methods of communication.

Keywords

Alt-right Far-right Online Hate Racism Misogyny 

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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  • Aaron Winter
    • 1
  1. 1.CriminologyUniversity of East LondonLondonUK

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