THE ONLINE SPACE
133. Historically, a journey into Right-Wing Extremism entailed real-world contact with organised groups and individuals in person, often through street demonstrations or music festivals. The combined deterrent of a police presence and travel logistics, together with a reticence to be seen publicly associating with controversial groups, discouraged many would-be members.
134. The internet has removed these barriers. Individuals can be anonymous and conduct online research from the privacy of their own homes, while organised groups can disseminate propaganda and recruit new members online. This recruitment can start with an invitation to a closed chat room in an online gaming community, or with a link to a closed forum. This global accessibility means a growing number of people now have access to, and are exploring, ERWT content online.
135. Nick Lowles, Chief Executive of Hope Not Hate, said that the online space is "much harder to track. Groups start up and close quite quickly",[1] and the Director General of MI5 acknowledges the particular challenges of Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism (ERWT) online:
*** the ERWT online environment, whose distinctive sub-cultures, complex ideologies and propensity for violent but empty rhetoric make it hard to distinguish which individuals actually pose a genuine terrorist threat and which do not.[2]
136. ERWT material online appears to be more difficult to tackle than Islamist terrorism propaganda, perhaps because of the wider lack of understanding of the ERWT threat, and concerns regarding freedom of speech (particularly in the US where material held on US-owned platforms can go unchallenged owing to the US Constitution's First Amendment).[3] The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) also noted in 2019 that some of the secure messaging apps (SMAS) ***.[4]
Categories of ERWT content online
137. The Home Office's Extremism Analysis Unit (EAU) and the Research and Information Communications Unit (RICU; part of Homeland Security Group) have built a categorisation framework[5] which divides the Extreme Right-Wing (XRW) material that can be found online into seven categories as follows.
Performative propaganda
138. This comprises videos, images and streams of terrorist attacks and attackers, which may be produced and uploaded by parties—including the attacker as well as bystanders—and
- ↑ Oral evidence - Nick Lowles, Hope Not Hate, 16 December 2020.
- ↑ Written evidence - MI5, 30 September 2020.
- ↑ The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. The First Amendment provides that Congress makes no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise. It protects freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievance.
- ↑ JTAC paper, 4 July 2019.
- ↑ 'Framework for Understanding Right-Wing Terrorist and Extremist Activity Online', EAU and RICU, 18 November 2020.
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