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REMVE RESEARCH SERIES FACT SHEET: Mapping a Social Media Ecosystem: Outlinking on Gab & Twitter Amongst the Australian Far-right Milieu

Abstract

This fact sheet provides a snapshot of findings from a RESOLVE Research Report exploring the online social media ecosystems of the Australian far-right milieu. Findings from the report presents a data-driven examination of the online ecosystems in which identified Australian far-right violent extremists exist and interact, as mapped by user generated uniform resource locators (URL), or ‘links’, to internet locations gathered from two online social platforms—Twitter and Gab. This link-based analysis builds on previous studies of online extremism to map the platforms and content shared in online spaces, providing further detail on the online ecosystems in which extremists interact. In line with Macdonald, et al., (2022) and Mudde (1995), this report uses the term "far-right” to describe ideas and actors "situated on the 'right-wing' of the global political spectrum and sharing a 'core ideology of nationalism, xenophobia, welfare chauvinism, and law and order' (Mudde, 1995)" (Macdonald, et al., 2022). “REMVE” is also similarly used to refer to a "specific, fringe subset of the far right, comprised of far-right individuals, groups, movements, or content that explicitly legitimate, promote, or support violence" (MacDonald, et al., 2022). To learn more about the research methodology and detailed findings, please refer to the RESOLVE Research Report by Julian Droogan, Lise Waldek, Brian Ballsun-Stanton, and Jade Hutchinson: Mapping a Social Media Ecosystem: Outlinking on Gab & Twitter Amongst the Australian Far-right Milieu (2022).