Extreme Right Movements and on line Politics

The Internet is generally regarded as an important vehicle for the diffusion of democratic principles, global thinking and equality. However it also embodies a ‚dark side‘ which is not widely understood.Focusing on extreme-right organisations in six Western Democracies (Italy, Spain, France, Great Britain, Germany and the USA), this presentation addresses the political use of the Internet by extremist groups and its potential impact on identity formation, organizational contacts, and mobilization. Whereas these phenomena are well-known and studied concerning left-wing social movements, so far scarce scientific attention has been devoted to the extreme right and the internet. Through a formalized comparative web content analysis of 250 organizational web sites, I will show that different forms of political activism on the Web by right wing groups are indeed on the rise, with the use of the Internet for diffusing propaganda, political information, promoting cyber community of debate, recruit new members, organizing political mobilisation, and cross-borders contacts. The analysis includes different types of extreme right organizations, from political parties to neo-nazi and youth skinhead groups. The presentation also shows that different types of groups use the Internet for different functions and purposes. In addition it relies to the available political opportunities and cultural traditions of the respective countries in accounting for differences in the degree and forms of online right wing political activism emerged.