Online discontent: comparing Western European far-right groups on Facebook

ABSTRACT

Far-right groups increasingly use social media to interact with other groups and reach their followers. Social media also enable ‘ordinary’ people to participate in online discussions and shape political discourse. This study compares the networks and discourses of Facebook pages of Western European far-right parties, movements and communities. Network analyses of pages indicate that the form of far-right mobilization is shaped by political opportunities. The absence of a strong far-right party offline seems to be reflected in an online network in which non-institutionalized groups are the most prominent actors, rather than political parties. In its turn, the discourse is shaped by the type of actor. Content analyses of comments of followers show that parties address the political establishment more often than immigration and Islam, compared to non-institutionalized groups. Furthermore, parties apply less extreme discursive practices towards ‘the other’ than non-institutionalized groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Far-right
• social media
• social networks
• discourse analysis
• online participation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 This page was reinstalled making earlier posts inaccessible. Instead, the page of the closely related Infidels of Britain was included.

2 See supplemental online material for additional information.

3 See supplemental online material for the word clusters.

4 See online supplemental material for more examples.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ofra Klein

Ofra Klein is a PhD researcher at the European University Institute. She previously studied Social Sciences and Digital Humanities. Ofra worked as a research assistant at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Her research interests are in the field of right-wing populism.

Jasper Muis

Jasper Muis is an assistant professor at the Sociology Department of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His research interests include right-wing populism and protest behaviour. His dissertation (2012) about the rise of right-wing populist Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands received the prestigious Dutch Research Prize of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation.