Alt-Right;
Alt-Tech;
far right;
Gab;
platform affordances;
social media;
virtual community;
COLLECTIVE IDENTITY;
FACEBOOK USE;
MOVEMENT;
ONLINE;
TALK;
D O I:
10.1177/14614448211024546
中图分类号:
G2 [信息与知识传播];
学科分类号:
05 ;
0503 ;
摘要:
With large social media platforms coming under increasing pressure to deplatform far-right users, the Alternative Technology movement (Alt-Tech) emerged as a new digital support infrastructure for the far right. We conduct a qualitative analysis of the prominent Alt-Tech platform Gab, a social networking service primarily modelled on Twitter, to assess the far-right virtual community on the platform. We find Gab's technological affordances - including its lack of content moderation, culture of anonymity, microblogging architecture and funding model - have fostered an ideologically eclectic far-right community united by fears of persecution at the hands of 'Big Tech'. We argue that this points to the emergence of a novel techno-social victimology as an axis of far-right virtual community, wherein shared experiences or fears of being deplatformed facilitate a coalescing of assorted far-right tendencies online.
机构:
Univ Western Australia, Sch Social Sci, Boorloo Perth, WA, Australia
Univ Western Australia, Sch Social Sci, Room 2-58, Boorloo Perth, WA, AustraliaUniv Western Australia, Sch Social Sci, Boorloo Perth, WA, Australia