The Alt-Right and Global Information Warfare

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the Alt-Right's involvement in disinformation campaigns using social media data mining, highlighting their strategies, influences, and potential geopolitical motivations to inform future research.

Contribution

It introduces a preliminary social media data mining approach to understand the disinformation tactics and motivations of the modern fascist Alt-Right movement.

Findings

Disinformation campaigns are linked to geopolitical strategies.

The Alt-Right uses targeted social media disinformation.

Influences include endogenous and exogenous factors.

Abstract

The Alt-Right is a neo-fascist white supremacist movement that is involved in violent extremism and shows signs of engagement in extensive disinformation campaigns. Using social media data mining, this study develops a deeper understanding of such targeted disinformation campaigns and the ways they spread. It also adds to the available literature on the endogenous and exogenous influences within the US far right, as well as motivating factors that drive disinformation campaigns, such as geopolitical strategy. This study is to be taken as a preliminary analysis to indicate future methods and follow-on research that will help develop an integrated approach to understanding the strategies and associations of the modern fascist movement.