Disinformation, Exclusion, and its Politics: Canadian Right-Wing Extremist Community within a Digital Landscape

Research on right-wing extremism has historically been overwhelmingly focused on the movement’s preoccupations in the United States and Europe. Scholarly literature on Canadian groups and their beliefs has been sparse, with few studies mapping the extent of their activities. Right-wing extremism has captured journalistic attention in recent years as lone-wolf right-wing extremists radicalized on the Internet take up arms against racialized groups they see as anathema to their White supremacist groups’ survival. This research examines right-wing extremist conceptions of out-groups (the ‘Other’) and resulting political demands to contain this imagined threat through a case-study approach of Stormfront Canada. I conducted a thematic analysis of publicly available digital communications exchanged between community members between January 1st and December 31st, 2021. Major themes identified for forum threads were anti-hate initiatives, politics, crime, and health within the COVID-19 context, while for forum replies these were disinformation, offensive speech, and politics. I also quantified the extent of this community’s activity and found that most content shared to the website is posted by less than six active members. This thesis argues that discursive constructions of the Other depend on exclusionary belief systems predicated on support for White hegemony, and that political demands expressed by community members to contain the perceived threat posed by the continued existence of racial out-groups are shaped by an adherence to the Great Replacement superconspiracy.

Author dc:creator

• Costanzo-Vignale, Christian

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Gilbert, Liette

• Geography
• Canadian studies
• Social research

Statement dc:rights

• Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10315/41721

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:yorkspace.library.yorku.ca:10315/41721