Networked Far-Right Hate from a Global Criminological Perspective

• In Event: Global Cultural Criminology

Abstract

The forms of hate common to online communities are increasingly consequential in politics and public places This places pressure on digital platforms to more effectively regulate user content where traditional state-based responses are limited. These platforms, however, are sprawling global networks, across which these cultures of hate not only proliferate and amplify existing prejudices but, equally, morph and adapt their rhetorics and tactics from one another. The growth of far-right hate is less confined to the borders of the nations whose flags they proudly brandish.

Ultra-nationalist groups share an odd transnationality. Anti-immigrant reactionaries are themselves mixing across borders. And those who fear shadowy global conspiracies to overthrow their governments work with foreigners to undermine their nation's democratic process. This national/global dialectic generates contradictions and challenges for any thinking grounded with reference to the territorial state. Most practically, this challenge can be seen in the failure of traditional institutions of social control to prevent or respond to harm and hate that proliferates through digital platforms. This will be demonstrated with reference to the interconnectedness of US, British, continental European and Australian far-right movements.

Author

• Robin Cameron, RMIT University, Australia