Roll in the Tanks! Measuring Left-wing Extremism on Reddit at Scale
Utkucan Balc{\i}, Michael Sirivianos, Jeremy Blackburn

TL;DR
This study provides the first large-scale analysis of left-wing extremism on Reddit, revealing distinct discourse patterns, high toxicity, and peripheral positioning within the broader far-left community.
Contribution
It introduces a novel large-scale measurement of left-wing extremism on social media, focusing on tankie communities and their unique discourse and toxicity patterns.
Findings
Tankies occupy the periphery of the far-left community on Reddit.
Their discourse emphasizes state politics and authoritarian regimes.
Tankies exhibit high toxicity and pejorative language use.
Abstract
Social media's role in the spread and evolution of extremism is a focus of intense study. Online extremists have been involved in the dissemination of online hate, mis- and disinformation, and real-world violence. While the majority of research has focused on right-wing extremism, recent real-world incidents have highlighted the potential for far-left extremists to engage in violence and cause real-world harm as well. In this paper, we present the first large-scale measurement of left-wing extremism on social media. Analyzing 1.3 million posts from 53,000 authors from tankie subreddits, we focus on ``tankies,'' a left-wing community that first arose in the 1950s in support of hardline actions of the USSR and has evolved to support what they call ``Actually Existing Socialist'' countries, e.g., CCP-run China, the USSR, and North Korea. Among other things, our analysis reveals that these…
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Taxonomy
TopicsSocial Media and Politics · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Misinformation and Its Impacts
