Abstract
This chapter looks at how the Far Right reaches out to young people online. Those aged 15–24 are the most connected users of social media worldwide. Far Right discourse uses the technological affordances of digital platforms to draw in both floaters who enjoy causing trouble and angry young people looking for political answers. Algorithms and bots channel youth interests, encouraging belief in white victimhood, anti-feminist, and homophobic propaganda, and alleged wicked corruption of government, intellectual, and scientific elites. Online anonymity guarantees the wide dissemination of fake news, conspiracy theory, and hate speech. Memes, trolling, hacking, doxxing, and clickbait are then used by young Far Right supporters in the propagation of hate discourse generated by right-wing influencers.
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Notes
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“‘Neue Deutsche?’ Machen wir selber.”
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When young leftists get involved in online FPS gaming they may choose to play as the avatar of the “Other” if the choice is offered.
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Nilan, P. (2021). Online Discourse and Social Media. In: Young People and the Far Right. Alternatives and Futures: Cultures, Practices, Activism and Utopias. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1811-6_2
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