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Political extremism and radicalization

Digital platform dynamics that facilitate, amplify, or concentrate far-right, white-nationalist, and alt-right political content and communities. Distinct from conservatism (mainstream right-wing politics) by ideology (white nationalism, explicit anti-Semitism, ethno-nationalism) and tactics (recruitment, coordinated online campaigns).

Key papers

  • Horta Ribeiro et al. (2019) — first large-scale audit characterizing three contrarian communities (I.D.W., Alt-lite, Alt-right); demonstrates systematic user migration toward extreme content; ~40% of Alt-right commenting users traced back to milder-community content in prior years.
  • Zannettou et al. (2018) — On the Origins of Memes by Means of Fringe Web Communities: Documents /pol/ and The_Donald's outsized influence on mainstream meme ecosystems; shows political memes (particularly pro-Trump content) dominate fringe platform discourse
  • Munger & Phillips (2022) — distinguishes Conservative, Alt-Lite, and Alt-Right creators on YouTube; shows ideological clustering and distinct audience dynamics for each.
  • Bail et al. (2018) — field experiment showing exposure to opposing views on Twitter can increase polarization; mechanism relevant to extremism echo chambers.
  • Cinelli et al. (2021) — platform architecture determines echo chamber formation; Alt-Right communities emerge on platforms with community-based or algorithmic clustering.