Stefan Molyneux

More and more openly
Over the past few decades, it has become radical online- and extreme right-wing landscape has taken off. In addition, racist and dehumanizing statements are no longer only made under a pseudonym in a corner of the internet on a web forum like Stormfront., but increasingly openly shared on social media. This fact sheet has been prepared to gain more insight into this online world and its significance for the offline world. The online world fulfills various functions in this regard: recruiting, generate attention, mobiliseren, spread ideology, finding like-minded people, ideological justification, trolling and doxing, undermining social cohesion and government and entertainment. Although the online range of known physical (offline) radically- and extreme right-wing groups is relatively small and the threat of violence has been low for years, is there a continuation of a previously observed "threatening culture". Racist and dehumanizing messages are not distributed from major channels, but rather shared bottom-up by a network of individual users. These increased racist comments and hate speech contribute to further polarization and undermining of social cohesion, especially when it comes to dehumanization and increasing hostility towards groups with a migrant background. The online landscape is constantly changing. The information in the fact sheet is a snapshot of September 2020. We update this fact sheet periodically.