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Influence of online propaganda by jihadist and right-wing extremist groups
Both jihadist and right-wing extremist propaganda incite individuals to perpetrate acts of violence autonomously and praise perpetrators as ‘martyrs’ or ‘saints’, respectively.
To have an impact, terrorist online propaganda requires
access to the intended audiences and resilience against
deletion. Commercial platforms usually offer wider reach
than dedicated spaces created by terrorists themselves,
but are more likely to be monitored by their owners, most of
whom are averse to the hosting of terrorist content. Closed
communication groups, including on encrypted messaging
applications, have become preferred spaces for in-group
communication, where radicalisation can be reinforced and
lead to engagement in terrorism and attack planning.
Online communication has exponentially increased
possibilities for terrorists and violent extremists to
communicate across borders. Among jihadists, Arabic is
the language with the highest prestige and that in which
key treatises and communication are drafted. Much of this
content is translated into relevant national languages by
supporters, who believe that these efforts are part of the
struggle. Meanwhile, English has become the lingua franca
of a globalised community of violent right-wing extremists.
Key treatises of right-wing extremists and terrorists were
either drafted in English or available in translation.
In recent years, IS lost its dedicated online infrastructure14
and was forced to operate on social media platforms,
many of which were hostile to the group’s abuse of their
services. As of late 2016, Telegram became the platform
of choice, but in late 2019 the platform took steps to
evict IS and other jihadist groups. IS and its supporters
have since been seeking out alternative platforms on
which to congregate and from which to expand into
public spaces. In addition, in 2019 official IS propaganda
continued to decrease in volume. This decrease was
partially supplemented by supporter-generated content
and recycled material. Suspects arrested for jihadist
propaganda frequently had a long involvement in jihadist
activities, including attempts to travel to join IS and attack
planning.
Despite a recent pushback, right-wing extremists continued
to enjoy much greater freedom to act on major social
media platforms in 2019 than, for example, jihadists; and
these platforms remain important vectors for the spread
of right-wing extremism. Right-wing extremists were early
adopters of information technology and continue to use
a large variety of platforms, including websites, online
discussion forums and pseudo-news sites, to disseminate
their ideology. In addition, fringe platforms, which are
either dedicated right-wing extremist sites or have been
colonised, constitute online safe havens for right-wing
extremist movements. These are also used to design
campaigns and as a launch pad to spread terrorist content
onto mainstream platforms in order to insert right-wing
extremist narratives into popular culture.
Left-wing and anarchist terrorists and violent extremists
use websites as platforms to spread ideology, exchange
ideas and post claims of responsibility. For communication,
they reportedly use their own online infrastructure of
commercially encrypted platforms, or avoid information
technologies altogether.