Perceptions of police in far-left and far-right online ecosystems

Perceptions of police in far-left and far-right online ecosystems

Research finds police appear in the grievance narratives of both extremes.

Idea in Brief

A recent research paper published by the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies (CRIS), an Australia-based think tank, has explored far-right and far-left groups on Facebook and found that reference to police arises in the broader grievance narratives of both sets of online communities.¹

The Far-Left

Discussion about police violence on far-left groups and pages spiked in June, coinciding with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests that began in the US in late May. While posts focused on expressing support for, and solidarity with, the BLM protests, they also incorporated the Australian context by, for example, linking police mistreatment of Aboriginals and Aboriginal deaths in custody to global narratives of institutional racism.Narratives of the far-left also often associate police, either directly or indirectly, with fascism and far-right ideologies and represent police and governments as ‘enablers of the far-right’.

The Far-Right

Just as police are seen as part of, or at least complicit in, far-right views and behaviours by the left, the paper also reveals that the far-right see the police as aiding the left.

A main theme in far-right Facebook communities is that far-left ideologies have taken away ‘our’ freedoms and seek to control what ‘we’ can think, say, or do. This messaging is particularly salient when discussing police and government perceived ‘overreach’ in response to Covid-19, the Victorian Safe Schools program and alleged free speech limitations on anti-Islam groups.

Far-right group activity also increased substantially at the time of the BLM protests, from 812 posts in May to 1,836 in June. In one post, three police officers pictured in a photograph were criticized for kneeling “before AntiFa terrorists and BLM thugs.”

An Evolving Threat Landscape

The report finds that posts referring to the far right make up 17% of far-left output, whereas posts referring to the far-left account for 7% of far-right content. This suggests anti-right mobilisation is more central to the left than anti-left mobilisation is to the right.The dangers of reciprocal radicalisation – whereby the extremism of one group fuels the narratives of another – have only been too clearly demonstrated. Examples include clashes in the US between groups such as Antifa and Proud Boys, and in London between BLM and far-right protesters.^2,3

Terrorism experts noted that the current counter-terrorism framework in Australia was developed with a different threat complex in mind – namely Islamic extremism – and a new approach is needed.81 Reviews such as the Christchurch mosque terrorist attack inquiry in New Zealand and the recently launched inquiry into extremist movements and radicalism in Australia have begun to consider this shifting threat landscape. ^4,5

Strategic Considerations

Police responses to public protests or other forms of collective action by either the far-left or the far-right will continue to pose challenges, as any action is likely to feed into both far-right and far-left narratives. Lack of action to disrupt demonstrations may be viewed as police being complicit in the actions or supportive of the views of the mobilising group, while efforts to intervene may be viewed as unnecessary use of police force by the far-left or censorship by the far-right.

Overseas, police have been drawn into clashes between far-left and far-right demonstrators thereby becoming the target of violence.

Monitoring narratives of both far-left and far-right ecosystems for signs of escalating animosity toward police may help anticipate risks or direct threats police may face from far-left or far-right groups.

Footnotes

¹ https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/The-Interplay-Between-Australia_final-1.pdf
² https://www.radicalrightanalysis.com/2020/10/30/reciprocal-radicalisation-and-the-right-left-divide/ 
³ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-14/black-lives-matter-far-right-protesters-clash-london-uk-police/12353340 
⁴ https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/dec/10/a-threat-to-australia-experts-welcome-inquirys-focus-on-rise-of-rightwing-extremism 
⁵ https://theconversation.com/far-right-groups-have-used-covid-to-expand-their-footprint-in-australia-here-are-the-ones-you-need-to-know-about-151203 
⁶ https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/inquiry-into-extremism-launched-after-labor-push-20201209-p56m1v.html  

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