Strain theory, resilience, and far-right extremism: the impact of gender, life experiences and the internet

Skoczylis, Joshua; Andrews, Sam

doi:10.1080/17539153.2022.2031137

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 108 publications

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“…As has been discussed throughout this thesis, far right and conspiratorial discourses are increasingly becoming 'mainstreamed' through the confluence of social media technologies that enable active attempts to shift the Overton window of acceptable ideas. These same technologies have been linked to an expansive nebula of far-right extremist subcultures whose ideas are directly linked to instances of extreme right-wing violence (Koehler, 2019;Guadette, Scrivens, and Venkatesh, 2022;Johnston, Iqbal and True, 2020;Miller-Idriss, 2020;Skoczylis and Andrews, 2022;Updupa et al, 2021). The synthesis of these two examples reveals that 'big-tech' exerts the second face of power through the algorithmic harvesting, analysis and monetisation of digital trace data can and do operate to reinforce the broader system of racial capitalism.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The contemporary digital media environment aids in the gradual process of mainstreaming exclusionary discourses or other so-called 'counter-normative ideologies' such as conspiracy theories or anti-vaccination beliefs (Marwick, Clancy, and Furl, 2022). As such, online technologies play a central role in producing real, offline effects such as targeted physical violence, right-wing extremist terrorism and lynch mobs through a variety of mechanisms that amplify existing cultural, racial, religious, gendered and political grievances (Brooton, 2020;Guadette, Scrivens, and Venkatesh, 2022;Johnston, Iqbal and True, 2020;Marwick et al, 2022;Skoczylis and Andrews, 2022;Udupa, Galiardone and Hervick, 2021).…”

Section: Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, we should keep in mind, as Safiya Noble (2019) reminds us that "Google search is in fact an advertising platform, not intended to solely serve as a public information resource in a way that, say, a library might". A growing body of research suggests that these online spaces have facilitated the rapid spread of socially corrosive ideologies (Guadette, Scrivens, and Venkatesh, 2022;Johnston, Iqbal and True, 2020;Skoczylis and Andrews, 2022;Updupa et al, 2021). Such views may not be harmful in and of themselves, but as recent right-wing extremist violence suggests, the slow, gradual 'radicalisation' of individuals has led to corporeal violence sits alongside a slew of virtualised violence, particularly against women and non-white ethnic minorities.…”

Section: Features/affordances Of Digital Racial Capitalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The confluence of technological and social shifts and their influence on the extremist violence described throughout this thesis is not a problem confined to Western societies. There is an abundance of examples from around the world that testify to the recent and troubling intersection of hateful and exclusionary discourse and the rise and expansion of 'extremist' groups as internet-enabled media has become the norm (Guadette, Scrivens, and Venkatesh, 2022;Johnston, Iqbal and True, 2020;Skoczylis and Andrews, 2022;Updupa et al, 2021). Right-wing nationalist and populist waves have worked hard to reshape cultures with a new lexicon of exclusionary discourse (Updupa et al, 2021).…”

Section: [For Example] the Existence Of The Waitangi Tribunal [Or] Th...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This attack did not occur in a vacuum. It was intimately embedded within an international context of increasing far-right violence and the 'mainstreaming' of far-right populism across the world (Koehler, 2019;Miller-Idriss, 2020;Skoczylis and Andrews, 2022;. It was fuelled by an online ecosystem of platforms, networks and alternative media outlets that disseminate the narratives, ideologies, visual styles and memes of the farright across borders (Ashe, Busher, Macklin, and Winter, 2020;Borgonvo and Fisher, 2022;Ehsan and Stott, 2020;Koehler, 2019;Miller-Idriss, 2020).…”

Section: Chapter 1: Introducing the Extremism Machinementioning

confidence: 99%

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The Extremism Machine: Exploring the Effects of Digital Capitalism on the Far-Right Field

Lindsay

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Major technological advances brought about by the technology industry have reconfigured capitalist social relations. Digital Capitalism relies on and is driven by the accumulation, analysis and commodification of digital data through complex algorithmic technologies. There are fears that these new technologies have enabled and extended a multitude of intersecting harms. In particular, there is concern that such digital technologies are being increasingly utilised to support the growth of violent extremism and terrorism. This fear was placed at the forefront on March 15th, 2019, when a white supremacist terrorist committed two consecutive attacks on separate Mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The terrorist’s use of the internet to disseminate his manifesto and to livestream the attacks enabled him to project immense harm across the globe. Five years on, social media and digital messaging applications are still being used as tools to motivate, organise and sustain xenophobic violence and to spread misinformation and conspiracy theories.There is a lack of consensus around methods to effectively curb the harms of online violent extremism. States and technology providers struggle to agree on effective regulation that balances the principles of an open and free internet with the protection of those who are harmed by exclusionary ideas. This thesis interrogates the underpinning structures that give rise to online and in-person hate and identifies how the contemporary socio-technical context has assisted in the spread and cross-pollination of far-right extremist ideas. It does so firstly by developing a novel theoretical framework of Digital Racial Capitalism and unpacks the intersection between histories of racial capitalism and the contemporary moment of digital capitalism. It conducts research specific to Aotearoa New Zealand through semi-structured interviews (n = 28) with representatives from the State, the Technology Sector and Frontline Anti-Fascist Activists to identify the major challenges in responding to far-right extremism within the contemporary system of digital racial capitalism.The findings of this research reveal that despite genuine attempts from regulatory bodies across the globe there are a myriad of barriers currently in place to effectively disempower far-right extremists from spreading their worldviews. One of the key barriers that the thesis focuses on is located within the system of digital capitalism itself. Through the affordances of ‘big-tech’ platforms and technologies that engage us in a variety of ways to keep us engaged and online, we amount to data-generating resources. Simultaneously, we are exposed to a variety of harms that transcend the illegal/legal binary and actions that structure the way we understand the world around us.Overall, this thesis provides a novel way of thinking about structure versus agency by reconnecting the history of racial capitalism to the present-day, and highlighting that the power of the technology industry is such that due to various assertions of power, effectively resists meaningful attempts to rein in harmful externalities. The thesis concludes by suggesting that although nascent attempts to harmonise legal mechanisms to strengthen international regulation are admireable, underscoring the affordances of the platform economy are embedded structural exclusions that lie at the centre of the capitalist system. To focus only on enforcement against those who spread and enact the socially corrosive, racist and violent ideas misses the broader picture of a (digital) society that creates the socially permissive space to hate in the first place, and the digital racial capitalist environment that profits from such division.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Features/affordances Of Digital Racial Capitalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: [For Example] the Existence Of The Waitangi Tribunal [Or] Th...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Chapter 1: Introducing the Extremism Machinementioning

confidence: 99%

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The Extremism Machine: Exploring the Effects of Digital Capitalism on the Far-Right Field

Lindsay

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Analysing Three Terrorist Attacks on French Soil Using Criminology Macro-Theories (Case Studies)

Herzog-Evans

2024

Handbook of Understanding Terrorism

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