Introduction The word “infodemic” was coined by the Word Health Organization (WHO) to describe the excess of information, usually false, on a particular problem, used to hinder the process of finding a solution. Even though not a recent phenomenon, in the unprecedented period that the world has been living in the last few months, the… Continue reading ““The media censorship”, free speech and the radical right: The case of Spain’s VOX party”
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”
What appeared as a harmless series of lectures for journalism students, soon turned out to be one of the first Swedish cases of the issue of ‘academic freedom’ as a battlefield of radical right mobilization. During fall of 2019, the Department of Media, Journalism and Communication at the University of Gothenburg arranged a lecture series… Continue reading “Sweden heading towards ‘academic freedom’ as battlefield of the radical right”
Mass shootings like that of El Paso show the grave consequences dangerous narratives circulating on the Chanosphere can be. The imageboard 8chan shut down after the El Paso shooting, but its users did not lose hope that it would reappear. Rumours were rife on Twitter that 8chan would be reincarnated as 8kun. The Qanon conspiracy theory… Continue reading “Endchan: narratives of the Chanosphere”
A new approach to countering the extremism of the radical right is desperately needed. This month, the Commission for Countering Extremism published the findings from its public consultation. Seeking to better understand what extremism is, how it finds form, and most importantly what can be done about it, the commission visited more than 20 towns and… Continue reading “Hateful extremism and the radical right: we need new definitions”
The UK education system has, since the statutorisation of Prevent, been legally obliged to both nurture ‘resilient’ students and refer those whose resilience has been or is at risk of being eroded. Resilience being understood as the ability to ‘bounce back from adversity’, or in other words, being able to both reject and remove oneself… Continue reading “A Case for Making Students Resilient to the Far-Right?”
8chan’s ability to bring the worst of the human mind out into the open drives its traffic. 8chan is one of the most notorious message boards on the internet. Its contents include subjects ranging from extremist political ideas to extreme pornography. Unsurprisingly, it stands by the slogan “Embrace Infamy.” Visitors receive an equally intriguing salutation:… Continue reading “8chan: Where the Appalling Becomes Appealing”
These controversies persist because Morrissey has been able to continue to make statements in interviews, and to publicise even more on his website. On the iconic Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival this year, The Killer’s lead singer Brandon Flowers was joined by The Smiths Johnny Marr for a rendition of ‘This Charming Man.’ In a… Continue reading “Cancel Morrissey? – controversy over music and free speech”
Prioritising free speech above the harms that extreme speech may cause has dominated the moderation strategies of social media platforms. Note: This piece was originally published at Scroll.in as part of a series on Extreme Speech Online, edited by Sahana Udupa, Elonnai Hickok, and Edward Anderson. The author thanks organisers of a workshop in… Continue reading “Debate over regulating right-wing extreme speech online must shift to harms such speech can cause”
If we get it right, machine-learning could be useful in identifying hateful networks and building a complete picture of white extremist ecosystems as they emerge. In 25 April 2019, Vice Motherboard journalists Joseph Cox and Jason Koebler reported that during a recent Twitter company meeting a comment was made that: Twitter hasn’t taken the same… Continue reading “Content moderation and censorship: can we handle a double standard?”