Explore the revival of far-right movements and parties over the past few decades in varying liberal-democracies, including the United States, Canada and Australia, Hungary, Poland and Taiwan. After decades on the social and political margins, far-right groups and movements in 2019 are enjoying increasing success, and even claiming a place in mainstream electoral politics in many Western political systems. Research shows that new media like Twitter, YouTube, and community sites likes 4chan and Reddit are increasingly involved with the mobilization of popular support for far-right electoral campaigns, and even organized political violence. These technologies - including other social media, discussion websites, certain online games, chat servers, talk radio, cable news, and print media - are making contemporary far-right ideologies possible in diverse ways, altering methods of recruitment to the extent that they become unrecognizable from far-right movements of the past, and thus, more dangerous. The results of these new technological processes can be seen in the increasing normalization of far-right values within mainstream culture, politics, and media ecosystems within countries from the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia to Germany, Poland and Hungary. This book brings together recent academic research exploring how far-right groups use new media to recruit followers to extremist beliefs and mobilize political action. In doing so, the book reveals the complex ways that evolving technologies are used both purposively, subtly, and in some cases incidentally, to recruit and mobilize far-right support.
Judith Bessant is professor at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia and an adjunct professor at the School of Justice, QUT, Australia. Rob Watts is professor of social policy at RMIT University, Melbourne. Melody Devries is doctoral graduate in communication & culture department at Ryerson University,.
1. Introduction: The Uncanny Political Work of Technologies, Melody Devries, Judith Bessant, & Rob Watts Part I: Electoral and Institutional Resurgence: Campaigns and Wins 2. Far-Right Recruitment and Mobilization on Facebook: The Case of Australia, Jordan McSwiney 3. Populist Myths and Ethno-Nationalist Fears in Hungary, Simon Bradford & Fin Cullen 4. Multi-Platform Social Capital Mobilization Strategies among Anti-LGBTQIA+ Groups in Taiwan, Kenneth C.C. Yang & Yowei Kang Part II: Social Network, Social Movement and the Gendered Far-Right 5. Twitter as a Channel for Frame Diffusion: Hashtag Activism and the Virality of #HeterosexualPrideDay, J.P. Armstrong 6. The Online Manosphere and Misogyny in the Far-Right: The Case of the #thotaudit, Simon Copland 7. "A Positive Identity for Men": Pathways to far-right participation through Reddit's /r/MensRights and /r/TheRedPill, Luc S. Cousineau Part III: Platforms and Alt-Tech Collectivity 8. Soldiers of 4chan: The Role of Anonymous Online Spaces in Backlash Movement Networks, Andrey Kasimov 9. The Internet Hate Machine: On the Weird Collectivity of Anonymous Far-Right Groups, Sal Hagen and Marc Tuters 10. Gab as an Imitated Counterpublic, Greta Jasser Part IV: Assemblages and Assembled Tools - From Theory to Resistance 11. Moments of Political Gameplay: Game Design as a Mobilization Tool for Far-Right Action, Noel Brett 12. Mobilized But Not (Yet) Recruited: The Case of the Collective Avatar, Melody Devries 13. "Resisting" the Far Right in Racial Capitalism: Sources, Possibilities and Limits, Tanner Mirrlees
