Project description
Fighting far-right radicalisation online
Far-right extremist groups are spreading hate rhetoric online. The increasing normalisation of populist radical rhetoric poses a security threat to the EU and an existential threat to fundamental European values such as non-discrimination, tolerance, and equality as per Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union. The EU-funded RADICALISATION project will identify radicalisation strategies in online far-right propaganda. Its aim is to contribute to deradicalisation and prevention programmes. The project’s focus on far-right radicalisation strategies is consistent with the policy objectives set out in the European Commission’s document ‘A Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy’.
Objective
The European Union (EU) is facing a high-level security threat by the re-emergence of the far right, indicated by a recent significant increase in far-right violence, often underreported to the police and by the media. The timeliness of this project is indicated by the alarming rate of radicalisation in the EU: the use of the internet for the fast-paced dissemination of far-right ideology and mobilisation of radicalised individuals from white supremacist movements pose an enhanced security threat to the EU and an ‘existential threat’ to fundamental European values such as ‘non-discrimination, tolerance, and equality’ as per Article 2 of the Treaty of EU. The primary goal of this project is to identify radicalisation strategies in online far-right propaganda, in order to gain a deep understanding of its linguistic repertoire and contribute to its prevention. Specifically, the main research question of is how radicalisation strategies of European far-right narratives deploy a wide range of nuanced semiotic, linguistic and visual meaning-making resources in order to recruit potential new members. Understanding the appeal of the European far right is therefore an urgent priority: the increasing normalisation of populist radical rhetoric is evidenced by 1) these voices gaining traction in recent elections and referenda and 2) increased incidents of hate speech and hate crime. By investigating extremist online propaganda, the ultimate goal of this interdisciplinary project is twofold: 1) to contribute new knowledge relevant to a range of disciplines, and 2) to lay the foundations for the creation of educational and deradicalisation programmes. This focus on far-right radicalisation strategies is consistent with the policy objective of ‘develop[ing] joint programmes on countering violent extremism and radicalisation’, set out in the European Commission’s document 'A Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy'.
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Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
1100 Wien
Austria