Rise of the Far Right

Abstract

After decades on the social and political margins, far-right groups and movements are enjoying increasing success, and even claiming a place in mainstream electoral politics in many Western political systems.

Research shows that new media like Twitter, YouTube, and community sites likes 4chan and Reddit are increasingly involved with the mobilization of popular support for far-right electoral campaigns, and even organized political violence. These technologies – including other social media, discussion websites, certain online games, chat servers, talk radio, cable news, and print media – are making contemporary far-right ideologies possible in diverse ways, altering methods of recruitment to the extent that they become unrecognizable from far-right movements of the past, and thus, more dangerous.

The results of these new technological processes can be seen in the increasing normalization of far-right values within mainstream culture, politics, and media ecosystems within countries from the United States, Britain, Australia, Germany, and Hungary.

This book brings together recent academic research exploring how far-right groups use new media to recruit followers to extremist beliefs and mobilize political action. In doing so, the book reveals the complex ways that evolving technologies are used both purposively, subtly, and in some cases incidentally, to recruit and mobilize far-right support.