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Pro-Violence and Anti-Democratic

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Foreword The standard media image of violent extremism may seem to be far from the ordinary work of the Swedish Media Council. While extremism is often described in dramatic terms of terrorism, attacks and riots, the Council’s work concerns more everyday things, such as age limits for cinema films and media awareness teaching in pre-school. But no person is born to be a perpetrator of violence for political or religious purposes. Being recruited to and radicalised within the framework of pro- violence and anti-democratic extremist groups is a question of adopting, more or less uncritically, an image of the world where hate is the driving force and violence the legitimate means. In today’s information society, the Internet has become, to an ever increasing extent, the tool for spreading anti-democratic messages for the purpose of recruiting new members. This fact places great demands on people young and old to retain a critical view of information and sometime sharply angled messages that we come across in both traditional and digital media. In October 2011, the Government mandated the Swedish Media Council to describe the presence of anti-democratic messages on the Internet and in social media. The focus is on messages aimed at young persons, and that encourage violence for political or ideological reasons. The aim is to create broader knowledge about extremist Internet milieux, their content, and how recruitment strategies are formulated and communicated. The overall purpose is to strengthen young persons in preparation for encounters with such messages. To carry out the work, the Swedish Media Council has employed three researchers, each of whom has contributed one constituent study about three different extremist Internet milieux. The editorial framework was then written by the Swedish Media Council in consultation with the three researchers. A reference group has also been associated with the work, with representatives from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå), Fryshuset Exit, the Living History Forum, the National Swedish Police Board, the Swedish Security Service and the Swedish National Board for Youth Affairs. During the survey work, ongoing discussions have also been held with the two simultaneous inquiries within the framework of the Government’s action plan, Utredningen om ett effektivare arbete mot främlingsfientlighet (Inquiry into more efficient work against xenophobia) and Utredningen för ett förebyggande arbete mot våldsbejakande extremism (Inquiry into preventive work against pro-violence extremism). This survey is in several ways unique from an international perspective. This also applies to the proposals for action that we make in the report. The observations made in the three constituent studies are pioneering work relating to the use of the Internet as a channel for disseminating pro- violence and anti-democratic messages. Ahead of reading, I would emphasise the importance of reading all three constituent studies in their entirety, in order to understand the special features that characterise each milieu and how their messages are formed. Stockholm, May 2013 Ewa Thorslund, Director, Swedish Media Council Contents Summary .................................................................................................................................... 9 Assignment and delimitations ....................................................................................................................... 9 Results ............................................................................................................................................................. 11 Common features of the Internet milieux ............................................................................................ 12 The unique messages of the Internet milieux ...................................................................................... 14 Mechanisms of recruitment and radicalisation .................................................................................... 17 Proposed measures ........................................................................................................................................ 21 1. Assignment and delimitations ............................................................................................... 28 1.1 Practical implementation of the studies .............................................................................................. 33 2. Introductory definitions ........................................................................................................ 36 2.1 Defining violence and pro-violence ..................................................................................................... 36 2.2 Defining extremism ................................................................................................................................ 38 2.3 What are anti-democratic messages? .................................................................................................... 41 3. Mechanisms for radicalisation .............................................................................................. 45 4. Pro‐violence and antidemocratic right‐wing extremist messages on the Internet ................ 49 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 49 4.2 Previous research .................................................................................................................................... 50 4.2.1 Scientific contributions .................................................................................................................. 51 4.2.2 Extrascientific examination of right-wing extremist milieux ................................................... 53 4.2.3 Research into the Internet, new media, and right-wing extremism ........................................ 55 4.3 Who are the extreme right? ................................................................................................................... 57 4.3.1 The right-wing extremist milieu of the Internet ........................................................................ 62 4.4 Outline and methodological delimitations .......................................................................................... 63 4.5 An overview of the right-wing extremist actors’ Web-based communication .............................. 67 4.5.1 The Swedish Resistance Movement (Svenska Motståndsrörelsen) ............................................... 68 4.5.2 Nordfront.se .................................................................................................................................... 69 4.5.3 Nordic National Socialists (Nordiska nationalsocialister) ........................................................ 70 4.5.4 The Party of the Swedes (Svenskarnas Parti) ............................................................................. 72 4.5.5 The National Youth Association (Förbundet Nationell Ungdom) ................................................ 74 4.5.6 Nordic Youth (Nordisk Ungdom) ................................................................................................... 74 4.5.7 Other Internet milieus .................................................................................................................... 77 4.6 Right-wing extremist communication on the Internet – qualitative analyses ............................... 81 4.6.1 News broadcasting as ideological propaganda tool ................................................................... 81 4.7 Communication forms and strategies in social media ....................................................................... 91 4.7.1 Twitter .............................................................................................................................................. 92 4.7.2 Right-wing extremist material on YouTube ............................................................................... 94 4.7.3 YouTube and the right-wing extremist movements’ visual front line ................................... 98 5 4.7.4 User interaction and the significance of the YouTube comments ....................................... 112 4.7.5 The importance of being seen – video activism and the kinetic/cognitive dimension of YouTube videos .................................................................................................................................... 114 4.7.6 Facebook as recruitment platform ............................................................................................. 117 4.8 Comments and conclusions ................................................................................................................ 122 4.8.1 Characteristics of right-wing extremist communication and its recruitment potential ..... 124 4.8.2 Masculine community .................................................................................................................. 127 4.8.3 Radicalisation tendencies ............................................................................................................. 128 Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................................... 131 5. Pro‐violence and anti‐democratic left autonomist messages on the Internet ..................... 132 5.1 Introduction, purpose, and starting points ......................................................................................
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