Over the past decade and a half, counter-narratives – defined as ‘messages that…[demystify], deconstruct or delegitimise extremist narratives’ (Tuck and Silverman 2016: 65) – have become a key part of western efforts to combat terrorism. Placed at the softer end of counter terror (CT) tactics and entering the UK policy discourse in mid-2005, the use… Continue reading “Moving Away from Islamist Extremism: Assessing Counter Narrative Responses to the Far-Right Online”
The extreme right is not a single entity but rather is a highly diverse, polycratic movement set across countless small organizations, or groupuscules. While this article is not about the extreme right’s responses to COVID-19, thinking about this issue briefly does give us a clear example of what it does focus on: the groupuscular dynamics… Continue reading “Understanding the Dynamics of the Far Right”
Memes remain an important potential influence on far-right online radicalisation and cannot be overlooked as an aspect of internet culture. The far right has always thrived in the online space, however scholars Lisa Bogerts and Maik Fielitz suggest that the advent of Web 2.0 catalysed “a process of (post-) modernisation” within the movement, thus creating… Continue reading “The Influence of Memes on Far-Right Radicalisation”
A number of far-right extremists have recently taken to social media platforms to spread conspiratorial content about COVID-19. Such conspiracy theories range from the virus being a biological weapon created by the Chinese government, to the predictable anti-Semitic tropes of ‘globalism’ claiming it was developed by the tech philanthropist Bill Gates in collaboration with the Jewish investor George… Continue reading ““#CoronaJihad”: How the Far-Right in India is Responding to the Pandemic”
The far-right has always created “alt-histories” and used historical revisionism to protect their power. President Trump is no different. In 2017, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to US President Donald Trump, coined the phrase ‘alternative facts’ to describe why the Trump administration had differing figures about the size of the audience at the newly elected president’s inauguration… Continue reading “Amid COVID-19, Trump Attempts To Rewrite History”
Well-organized far-right movements aren’t just lending a hand during the current COVID-19 crisis, but taking advantage of the occasion as a branding and public relations opportunity. In photo after photo on their website, they show their volunteers doing everything from delivering food and supplies to people on low incomes to driving health-care professionals to work… Continue reading “For the Far Right, the COVID-19 Crisis Is a PR Opportunity”
For the modern far right in America, higher education is a major battleground. Whether as targets for hate or as potential recruiting grounds, college campuses have consistently been on the front lines of the far-right culture war that has been raging over the last four years. Organizations like Turning Point USA, the Patriot Front and… Continue reading “Zoom-Bombing and the Far-Right’s Latest Assault on College Communities”
In Epistemic Injustice: The Power and Ethics of Knowing, Miranda Fricker introduces the theory of epistemic injustice, an injustice that someone encounters when their status as a knower, thus a human being, is degraded. Fricker distinguishes between two forms of epistemic injustice: testimonial and hermeneutical injustice. I will focus on the latter; hermeneutical injustice is… Continue reading “Is the English far-right hermeneutically marginalised?”
Using covert speech to avoid detection and migrating to more extremist platforms underlines that censoring far-right actors from social media is not always an easy or desirable practice. Since 2016, censorship of far-right groups and individuals on social media platforms has been the subject of much public discussion. With the implementation of laws to counter… Continue reading “The effects of censoring the far-right online”
The annual report of “Reporters Without Borders” shows that global press freedom is in decline, even though less journalists were killed in 2019. While Mexico and Syria remain the most deadly countries for journalists (ten murdered journalists in each country) in 2019, China, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are the countries with the highest number of… Continue reading “Personal Public (Death) Threat I: How the German Far Right tries to intimidate and silence journalists”
