Stern Discusses Online Spread of Right-Wing Extremism in New Book Review
Jessica Stern, Research Professor at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a book review of Going Dark: The Secret Lives of Extremists in the latest issue of the Times Literary Supplement (TLS). In the review, Stern discusses the rise of right-wing extremism and terrorism through online communities and social media.
In the piece, Stern discusses the process of “red-pilling,” a term many extremists use for their belief that they are waking up to political reality, and how the internet – what Julia Ebner, author of Going Dark calls a redpill factory – has allowed for the rapid dissemination of extremist ideology. The spread of these groups is exacerbated by tech firms refusing to strictly crack down on extreme right-wing content resulting in it’s rapid spread on social media platforms. Stern argues that this inaction has led to immediate and obvious harm, and while social media giants like Facebook have outlined how they’re combating online misinformation, she hopes they will do more to combat racial hatred that can be physically harmful.
An excerpt:
The United Nations Security Council Counter-terrorism Committee recently alerted member states that extreme right-wing terrorism has increased in both frequency and lethality. There has, it said, been a 320 per cent increase in the number of attacks from this constituency in the past five years. Far-right ideologies vary on points of detail, but their adherents have a habit of coming to each other’s causes. Russian and Ukrainian nationalists fighting in eastern Ukraine, for example, have been able to attract others on the far right from Western Europe, Australasia and the Americas. The local fighters thus expand their army, while the foreign recruits gain training and experience in conflict. This is remarkably similar to how the jihadist movement established local franchises around the world.
The full article can be found here.
Professor Jessica Stern is a Research Professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. She is the coauthor with J.M. Berger of ISIS: The State of Terror; and the author of Denial: A Memoir of Terror; Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill; and The Ultimate Terrorists. Learn more about her here.