By Sheila Mckenzie-
Canadians were found to be involved in 6,600 right-wing extremist channels online, according to newly released research from the U.K.-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
A report released Friday on Canadian involvement in right-wing extremism online revealed the disturbing findings which researchers said should serve as a “wake-up call” about the widespread nature of the movement and highlights a growing shift toward the use of less regulated platforms, says an expert on the phenomenon.
The research, led by the U.K.-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) think-tank, identified more than 6,600 online channels — pages, accounts or groups — where Canadians were involved in spreading white supremacist, mysogynistic or other radical views.
It said that ”acts of terrorism committed by the far-right have increased by 320% over the past five years, supported by an increasingly connected and internationalist community of right-wing extremism. Canada has not been isolated from this trend and in recent years the number of hate groups operating in the country has tripled”
Social media is a central platform for such right wing extremists, the report found. ”It provides avenues for a broad spectrum of right-wing extremists to mobilise by recruiting new members, broadcasting disinformation and propaganda, harassing opponents, and co-ordinating activity including publicity stunts, protests and acts of violence”
The report represents the interim findings of a two-year study designed to increase understanding of the social media footprint of right-wing extremism (RWE) in Canada. This work is part of a larger project designed to understand RWE in Canada led by Ontario Tech University (OTU), in partnership with Michigan State University and the University of New Brunswick
Highly Active
Researchers said in some forums, Canadians were found to be “highly active,” even more, on average, than users in the U.S. and Britain.
On one particular message board called “politically incorrect” on the fringe site 4Chan, researchers found Canadian users created 1,636,558 posts, representing 5.71 per cent of posts from all countries.
The study suggests when the numbers were averaged out using each country’s “estimated internet-using population,” Canada was shown to be producing more content than anywhere else.
Barbara Perry, director of Ontario Tech University’s Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism, called the Canadian tally “really disconcerting.”
“For us to be up there with the heavy hitters … it’s a wake-up call,” she said.
The study highlights the online roots of such groups, classifying incels as being part of the wider “manosphere” movement marked by “overt and extreme misogyny.”
Social media is “hugely important in the way these groups and individuals communicate, spread propaganda and target minority communities,” Davey said.
Small Proportion
The manosphere movement accounted for a small portion of the extremist content identified by researchers, with ethnonationalists — described in the study as “often marked by implicit rather than explicit racism” — appearing more frequently across mainstreams platforms.
Aspectrum of right-wing extremist communities were found to be active across different platforms. The four researcher undertaken this broad study identified five ideological subgroups of right-wing extremists. They are white supremacists, ethnonationalists, anti-Muslim groups, sovereigntists and militia groups, and the ‘manosphere’.
They said individuals and groups were then assigned to one of these classifications according to pre-existing literature produced by anti-hate organisations and academia, explicit references to certain ideas, and analysis of the tone and nature of material produced and shared online.
We found that ethnonationalists are the largest RWE community
operating on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, accounting for 60%, 53% and 46% of RWE communities on these platforms respectively.
The researchers said white supremacist are more prevalent, accounting for 100% of Canadian users identified on Fascist Forge.
Anti-Muslim and anti-Trudeau rhetoric are the most salient topics of conversation among RWE actors in Canada, the report said.n Twitter we found that highly prolific extremist users were more likely to be engaged in anti-Muslim conversation, and spikes in activity often contained anti-Muslim conversation.
Muslims Most Targeted
Muslims were the most widely discussed minority community, and the most common target of posts containing explicit hate speech (23%), with anti-Semitism being the second largest grouping of hate speech (16%). The disturbing findings which extend beyond the bounds of this article is to be presented to The Canadian government for policy considerations.
Anti-government sentiments against Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, were also featured in several posts.