Mapping online right-wing extremist communities

Mapping online right-wing extremist communities

Do prohibitive social media content policies have unintended impacts?

A recent study by Macquarie University, Mapping Networks and Narratives of Online Right-Wing Extremist Communities in New South Wales, has identified two distinct levels of risk posed by right-wing extremist (RWE) communities:

• The creeping threat: where political and social norms are threatened by shifts in the political discourse, and by what is deemed to be ‘acceptable’.
• Risk of violent actors: where individuals within RWE communities advocate for the use of violence.¹

The report categorises social media platforms on a spectrum of low to high risk, with platforms such as Facebook and Twitter classified as low risk, whereas 4chan and 8chan are high risk (see above).

Changes to social media content and conduct policies have sought to prohibit and remove hateful content that RWE often engage with. Most recently, Facebook has prohibited content that denies or distorts the Holocaust and has banned some 250 white supremacist organisations from the platform.²

It has also committed to removing groups and pages that represent the notorious conspiracy theory group QAnon regardless of whether they explicitly promote violence.³ This denotes a shift from the platform’s previous policy of only banning groups actively promoting violence. Youtube has also announced it will begin to remove some content related to QAnon, though only that which justifies real-world violence.⁴

The study also shows that RWE communities in NSW have proven to be interested in world events and issues, particularly those occurring across Australia and the US. This could point to a spike in online, and potentially offline, activity among RWE communities coinciding with key RWE-related events around the world.

This phenomenon has already been reported elsewhere, with one study identifying substantial increases in online activity across Canadian RWE communities coinciding with the 2019 Christchurch attack and the Canadian federal election.⁵ Current issues such as the upcoming US election, the recent criminal designation of Greek far-right party Golden Dawn,⁶ and the plot by RWE in Michigan to kidnap a governor and target and kill police⁷ may resonate particularly with RWE communities in NSW and Victoria.

RWE now comprises up to 40% of the current ASIO counter-terrorism case load,⁸ with counter-terrorism officials in Australia and the UK reporting that children as young as 13 are being enticed into RWE communities.^9,10 Both AFP and ASIO have reported an increasing workload in relation to RWE, as these groups have seized upon COVID-19 to reinforce their narratives and conspiracies.¹¹

Strategic Considerations

While social media content policy changes may limit the potential of the ‘creeping threat’ across low-risk platforms, they may also push RWE communities toward more high-risk online platforms. However, as certain platforms become more restrictive of RWE content, it is likely some users will shift to high-risk platforms where there is less content moderation. This raises several potential challenges:

• As users shift to less moderated platforms, it may become harder to distinguish potential violent actors from those engaging in rhetoric but lacking real violent intent. Strategies for differentiating may need to be developed or revised.
• With some platforms adopting content deletion policies, it may become harder to obtain intelligence about RWE networks, particularly if platforms do not store or share deleted content. Consultation with government and social media companies may be needed to mitigate potential limitations arising from content deletion policies.
• New strategies to limit the exposure of children to RWE networks may be required, particularly as we begin to shift to a Covid-normal world. This may see online networks expand into offline spaces.

Footnotes

1 https://www.mq.edu.au/newsroom/2020/10/09/rise-of-online-right-wing-extremism-mapped-in-landmark-nsw-study/
2 https://about.fb.com/news/2020/10/removing-holocaust-denial-content/
3 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-07/facebook-instagram-bans-qanon-content-from-social-media-platform/12738630 
4 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/oct/15/youtube-ban-qanon-content-technology 
5 https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/An-Online-Environmental-Scan-of-Right-wing-Extremism-in-Canada-ISD.pdf 
6 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-08/greek-neo-nazi-golden-dawn-party-criminal-organisation/12741704 
7 https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2020/10/12/extremist-groups-plot-kidnap-governor-included-plan-kill-police/5961147002/ 
8 https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/sep/22/asio-reveals-up-to-40-of-its-counter-terrorism-cases-involve-far-right-violent-extremism 
9 https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/23/children-interested-in-extremism-covid-says-neil-basu-counter-terrorism-officer 
10 https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/24/rightwing-extremism-a-real-and-growing-threat-asio-chief-says-in-annual-assessment 
11 https://www.sbs.com.au/news/young-australians-are-being-aggressively-radicalised-through-right-wing-extremism-federal-police-warn  

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