Exploring the Internationalization of Far-Right Movements

• In Event: What's the Buzz? News Agendas in the Contemporary Media Environment

Abstract

Historically, the extreme right movement has been “fragmented, leaderless and multi-dimensional” (Davey and Ebner 2017, 7). However, in the aftermath of the U.S. elections and the subsequent global rise of the ‘Alt-Right,’ the North American and European extreme right have been emboldened (Eatwell and Goodwin 2018). In this climate, extreme right groups have begun to put aside their differences and cooperate to increase their influence, reach and impact.

Yet, the relationship between far-right movements and transnational politics has remained ambiguous and understudied. Existing research on the internationalization of violent movements associated with the role of the Internet is largely limited to religious Islamic organizations (Atwan 2015; Rudner 2017; Weimann 2015). To address this lacuna in existing research, this study explores the trends in internationalization of far-right online discourse using novel computational methods, including natural language processing, unsupervised machine learning and network analysis, and a large dataset of online activity.

Specifically, this study explores the following questions:
RQ1: What are the salient themes around which individuals in white-nationalist forums associate and mobilize?
RQ2: Which themes are limited to localized contexts and which are more internationalized?
RQ3: Does the level of internationalization change over time?

Our research is based on a dataset consisting of more than 5 million posts from 90,042 unique members posted on Stormfront.org – a white nationalist forum - between 2002-2017. Using natural language processing, unsupervised machine learning, and network analysis, we have identified and analyzed salient themes in extreme right discourse through a combination of topic modeling and network analysis (The ANTMN method; Walter and Ophir 2019).

Our preliminary analysis of RQ1 identified 25 topics divided into two large communities of topics or themes. The first group of topics included elections, gun laws, law enforcement and racial profiling, all connecting to local issues. The second group focused on international issues, including topics on Jews, Israel, immigration, economy, family and education. We argue that these topics correspond well with current literature on white-nationalist communication and the underlying ideological fears of the white-nationalist cause (Nagle 2017).

To address the following questions, we estimate the level of discourse internationalization by identifying locations and individuals referred to in the data, using named-entity recognition. We then hand-code these results into their origin localities (for example, Obama: United States; Moscow: Russia, etc.). Relying on these two steps to identify localization of different themes, we estimate the diversity and distribution of entities’ geographic location. This estimation of internationalization enables us to examine changes to internationalization both over time, between topics, and between themes.

Having identified the trends in the internationalization of far-right discourse over time, the themes that connect extreme right groups and resources, and the level of internationalization related to each of these themes, we conclude by providing proactive recommendations for delinking and delegitimizing violent groups online.

References
Atwan, Abdel Bari. 2015. Islamic State: The Digital Caliphate. London: Saqi Books.

Davey, Jacob, and Julia Ebner. 2017. The Fringe Insurgency: Connectivity, Convergence and Mainstreaming of the Extreme Right. Washington, D.C: Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD).

Eatwell, Roger, and Matthew J. Goodwin. 2018. National Populism: The Revolt against Liberal Democracy. [London] UK: Pelican an imprint of Penguin Books.

Nagle, Angela. 2017. Kill All Normies: The Online Culture Wars from Tumblr and 4chan to the Alt-Right and Trump. Winchester, UK ; Washington, USA: Zero Books.

Rudner, M. 2017. “Electronic Jihad”: The Internet as Al Qaeda’s Catalyst for Global Terror.” In Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, , 10–23.

Walter, Dror, and Y Ophir. 2019. “News Frame Analysis: An Inductive Mixed-Method Computational Approach.” Communication methods and measures.

Weimann, Gabriel. 2015. Terrorism in Cyberspace: The next Generation. Washington, D.C. : New York : Columbia University Press: Woodrow Wilson Center Press.

Authors

• Ayse Deniz Lokmanoglu, Georgia State University

• Dror Walter, Georgia State University

• Yannick Veilleux Lepage, Georgia State University

• Meredith L. Pruden, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill