Right-Wing Extremism: Hate and Harm, Online and Off

A Winter 2022 Webinar Series Part II - Transnational Right-Wing Extremism and Digital Disinformation: Right-Wing Extremism: Hate and Harm, Online and Off

This panel focuses on the rise of right-wing extremism in Canada and internationally, and considers the national and transnational digital development, spread, and impact of this movement. Panelists consider how right-wing extremist and alt-right politics have been enabled and emboldened by digital technologies and scrutinize Canada’s online ecosystem of harmful and hateful disinformation.

The global rise of right-wing extremist movements, parties, and politicians has been accompanied by research on the roles that the Internet and social media platforms may play in both supporting and contesting this harmful, hateful and even terroristic political formation. Over the past few years, numerous scholars across disciplines have shown how the Internet and new and emerging digital media technologies provide right-wing extremists with a significant means for promoting their ideologies, circulating disinformation and propaganda, and interacting with and recruiting potential followers. Using a transnational and interdisciplinary lens, the “Transnational Right Wing Extremism and Digital Disinformation” webinar series brings together scholars from across Canada to share their research on how right-wing extremists based in Canada and around the world use and exploit the affordances of social media platforms to advance their worldview.