Online radicalisation and counter-concepts. Between imageboards, de-platforming and legal options
A conversation with Miro Dittrich and Dr Matthias Lausen
When: Wednesday, 10 March 2021, 7:30 p.m.
Where: online stream via Facebook
Radicalisation and conspiracy myths are not a new phenomenon. Nevertheless, it is striking that the internet represents one of the central places for radicalisation. Right-wing extremist attackers of recent years were in some cases not integrated into the (supra-)regional neo-Nazi scenes and yet were not isolated “lone perpetrators”. Online in particular they were in close exchange with like-minded comrades and extremely well networked. Islamic State, too, used the internet and social media to spread its propaganda and recruit people. Parts of the “New Right” likewise rely on digital campaigns. Something has meanwhile been set against this offensive through “de-platforming”.
When the platform “Judas Watch” came to public attention last year, it was in fact already far too late. For years the website was able to list political enemies “of the white race” unhindered. Jewish people were moreover marked with a Star of David. Only through a laborious reporting procedure was the hate website blocked in Germany. But why was the site online for so long in the first place?
Another example of openly displayed hatred are imageboards. Because the activities of several attackers on imageboards have been proven, there have repeatedly been media reports in the past. Imageboards form a hotchpotch of racism, antisemitism and misanthropy that is not entirely comprehensible from the outside. Under the protection of anonymity, minorities are agitated against and attacks are called for. Again and again attackers have used imageboards to disseminate their manifestos and videos. All of this is publicly accessible.
Change of location, same phenomenon: on the messenger service Telegram, vegan cookbook authors are up to mischief, spreading conspiracy thinking and hatred of people. Right-wing terrorists, too, feel at home on this platform. Numerous actors whose accounts have already been blocked on other platforms retreat there. Moderation: non-existent. Followers: tens of thousands.
How should a society deal with these challenges? What exactly is actually happening there? Who are the actors and how do these platforms work? Is de-platforming a functional solution? And do laws have to be created or changed in order to be able to counter the internet as an apparently lawless space?
We discuss these questions with the two experts Miro Dittrich and Dr Lausen.
Miro Dittrich is a researcher on right-wing extremism. He deals with the interface between technology and society, with a focus on phenomena hostile to human beings and to democracy in the digital space. By means of qualitative, quantitative and OSINT-led investigations he has for years been providing information about right-wing extremist propaganda, networking and radicalisation in digital spaces. In the course of the increasing radicalisation of the right-wing extremist scenes, from 2019 onwards he increasingly concentrated on international right-wing terrorism and digital niche spaces. From 2018 to 2020 he headed the project de:hate on right-wing extremist, right-wing populist and conspiracy-ideological digital phenomena for the Amadeu Antonio Stiftung.
Dr Matthias Lausen is a lawyer in Munich specialising in copyright and media law. From 2003 to 2011 he was a lecturer at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Since 2006 he has been a teacher on the course for specialist lawyers in copyright and media law at the Institut für Urheber- und Medienrecht München. In 1995 he founded the law firm “Lausen Rechtsanwälte”.
