Far right exploits corona through social media to spread hate

Mohamed Abdul Ghaffar

Extremist terrorist groups have been quick to take advantage of the cyber world since its emergence, albeit in varying ways, from personal blogs to social networking sites. One of the most famous models of the far right in America is Tom Metzger, who founded the White Aryan Resistance in the mid-1980s, which is a vivid example of the dissemination of ideological terrorism.

Therefore, we have what is known as cyber terrorism, which was defined by some researchers, including the expert Fadi Mohamed, as a process represented in employing the internet in all its various means and the electronic services associated with it in publishing, broadcasting, receiving and creating websites and services that facilitate the process of transmission and promotion of intellectual materials that feed ideological extremism, especially the instigators of violence, regardless of the person or group that adopts and encourages everything that would expand the circle of promoting such extremist ideas. Therefore, social networking sites have a direct impact on the national security and stability of societies.

Looking at the far right’s interaction with the cyber world, we find that they follow a strong persuasive approach, which contributes to the embrace of these extremist ideas by young people and other targets to become effective members of these groups and contribute to the implementation of their goals.

Far right’s cyber exploitation of corona

Although there is a great contrast between the ideas of the far right, it includes supporters of fascism on the one hand and reactionary conservatives on the other. But E. Carter tried to find a comprehensive concept for the word right-wing extremism, as the researcher concluded that the far right is an ideology that includes tyranny and opposition to democratic values, as well as exclusionary or total nationalism, and it includes xenophobia, racism and populism as characteristics accompanying the concept. That is, they are ideas of the far right, which are a mixture of some or all of the fascist or extremist nationalist ideas, including Nazism, anti-Semitism, anti-Islam and anti-immigration.

Looking at the far-right’s view of the corona crisis, we find that it believes that the virus in itself is harmless and that the causes of many deaths lie in the strength of electromagnetic frequency radiation emitted from 5G towers, as these towers work to withdraw oxygen from the air, in addition to it being deliberately directed to kill specific segments of the population. Far-right organizations saw the bans on citizens’ movement that were imposed by governments as part of a gradual effort to strip citizens’ liberties in pursuit of a new world order.

Based on this idea, right-wing groups have been quick to exploit social media, especially Telegram, to exploit fear and panic among citizens. They have been quick to call for violence and riots, increasing ethnic tensions, and these groups have also called for the hoarding of medical and provisional supplies to prevent some parties from obtaining food necessary for their survival during the pandemic, including ethnic minorities.

Timothy Wilson, one of the most famous neo-Nazis in cyber forums, also put forward his theory about corona that revolves around the Covid-19 virus being designed by Jews to control the world. Wilson then planned to blow up a quarantine hospital for corona patients in Kansas City, Missouri, in March 2020. Wilson’s goal, he wrote, was to “create all chaos to unleash a revolution in the country.”

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), in partnership with BBC Click, presented a survey in 2020 on the exploitation of the corona pandemic by far-right groups to promote misinformation online, especially through Facebook. The research continued during the period from January to April 12, 2020, and 150,000 posts were collected on Facebook by individuals affiliated with the far right.

It became clear that individuals affiliated with the far right focus their discussions on immigration, Islam, Jews, gays and elites. With the increase in the number of deaths due to corona, the far right’s interest in the issue of the elite increased, as political, economic and social elites around the world were accused of using the virus as a tool to control the world and to ethnically cleanse some segments.

The study found that far-right groups use Facebook to promote some specific websites, including 34 websites that are frequently used to support extremist right-wing ideas about the virus. It also found that the volume of interaction with these posts reached 80 million interactions during the study period, compared to only 6.2 million interactions for the World Health Organization (WHO) and 6.4 million for links of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

It is clear that far right organizations have exploited the period of citizens staying in their homes, which was followed by their frequent use of social media to communicate extensively with individuals in an attempt to spread their extremist ideas about the virus, which was used as an entry point to spread other ideas on various issues of a political, economic and social nature.