Gendering Web2.0 Sociotechnical Affordances of Far-Right Metapolitics

Abstract

This study examines the ways in which Web2.0 sociotechnical affordances of far-right metapolitics are gendered. Specifically, I focus on a key Swedish far-right entity that is not only an extensive publisher of far-right intellectual output, but also organizes a political salon that unites various actors from the European transnational far-right ecosystem. My explicit interests are in the performances of far-right masculinity at work in this metapolitical project. Consequently, the article makes both empirical and theoretical contributions to the field. Empirically, the study provides a digital ethnography of the manner in which far-right performances of masculinity consolidate digital fraternities around a shared transnational far-right ethos of the underdog “us.” In so doing, they exploit Web2.0 sociotechnical affordances, presenting their capability of skillfully weaponizing the digital landscape for their metapolitical project. These performances of masculinity aim to re-naturalize the domination, hierarchy, and privilege of White cis heterosexual masculinities across such intersectional axes of inequality as gender, sexuality, race, and social class. This is underpinned by a syncretic theoretical construct, at the heart of which lies the concept of masculinity of crises, buttressed by a superordinate intersectionality perspective. This combination enables a more sophisticated analysis of Web2.0 sociotechnical affordances, highlighting the intersectional underpinnings of the co-constitutive dynamic between far-right performances of masculinity and crises.

Google, data voids, and the dynamics of the politics of exclusion

“…Concomitantly, we acknowledge the ethical ramifications of deploying this catalogue of queries to generate the dataset for our study. We were able to navigate these ethical complexities because of our heterodox approach and the multidisciplinary character of our research team – combining extensive expertise in data science approaches to information research and information retrieval (e.g., Lewandowski, 2012; Lewandowski et al, 2012; Lewandowski and Sünkler, 2019; Schultheiß et al, 2018) with knowledge in the political and media mechanisms of exclusionary politics from a feminist perspective (e.g., Hellström et al, 2020; Norocel, 2017; 2022) – which were guided by the shared ethical imperative to avoid individual and networked harm (Daniels, 2015; D’Ignazio and Klein, 2020; Metcalf and Crawford, 2016).…”

“…In Swedish, we chose ‘invandrarvåldtäkt’ (a combination of migrant and rape), ‘kulturberikare’ (a juxtaposition of culture and enricher, with derogatory meaning), and ‘skäggbarn’ (bearded child, an allegation of false documentation of adults as children). We are aware that the distinctions between these categories are rather fluid. This fluidity is due to the continuous process of mainstreaming radical-right populist points of view on these matters (Hellström et al, 2020; Krzyżanowski, 2020; Krzyżanowski et al, 2021; Norocel, 2017; 2022) and to the continuous efforts of extreme-right entities to manipulate the mainstream debate towards polarized and extremist views in general (Åkerlund 2020; Ekman, 2019).…”

“…These digital inequalities become entrenched, as users whose data are harvested are generally neither encouraged to improve their technical knowledge nor made aware of the datafied intricacies of contemporary societies. Rather, simple answers are provided to them, in part crafted within the extreme-right environment that attempts to weaponize these answers for its political ends (Norocel, 2022: 7). These answers are packaged into emotional appeals and calls to ‘do your own research’, which are part of a wider changing public discourse marked by ‘uncivility, dogmatic politicization and ideologization as well as fact denial’ (Krzyżanowski, 2020: 432).…”

“…In addition, it has helped researchers map out the manner in which ‘hate speech targeting various ethnic, migrant, and religious minorities flourishes especially in general social media discussions […], but it has also long taken the forms of organized propaganda, hate groups, and hate sites’ (Laaksonen et al, 2020: 3). Generally, these studies have pointed out that social media platforms contain hostile, negative, and stereotypical framings of migrants (particularly those of Islamic faith), with strong racist undertones, whereby accusations of crimes (especially sexual assault) allegedly committed by both asylum seekers and other migrants are a recurring frame (Åkerlund, 2020; Ekman, 2019; Monnier et al, 2021; Nikunen, 2021; Norocel, 2022; Pöyhtäri et al, 2021). We build and expand on the findings of these studies, which have chosen various social media platforms as their preponderant loci of analysis.…”