Describing Alt-Right communities and their discourse on Twitter during the 2018 US mid-term elections

TL;DR

This study analyzes alt-right communities on Twitter during the 2018 US midterm elections, revealing their discourse themes, organization, and topics, including racist language, anti-immigration views, and discussions on media, news, and niche interests.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of alt-right online organization and discourse during a key political event using community detection and topic modeling techniques.

Findings

Alt-right supporters frequently used racist and anti-immigration language.

They criticized mainstream media and promoted alternative media sources.

A subset focused on white supremacist themes and niche interests like anime and religion.

Abstract

The alt-right is a far-right movement that has uniquely developed on social media, before becoming prominent in the 2016 United States presidential elections. However, very little research exists about their discourse and organization online. This study aimed to analyze how a sample of alt-right supporters organized themselves in the week before and after the 2018 midterm elections in the US, along with which topics they most frequently discussed. Using community finding and topic extraction algorithms, results indicated that the sample commonly used racist language and anti-immigration themes, criticised mainstream media and advocated for alternative media sources, whilst also engaging in discussion of current news stories. A subsection of alt-right supporters were found to focus heavily on white supremacist themes. Furthermore, small groups of alt-right supporters discussed anime, technology and religion. These results supported previous results from studies investigating the discourse of alt-right supporters.