CAMRI | Racism, Nationalism and Right-Wing Extremism Online: The Austrian Presidential Election 2016 on Facebook

Racism, Nationalism and Right-Wing Extremism Online: The Austrian Presidential Election 2016 on Facebook

A Book Chapter by Christian Fuchs, published by University of Westminster Press

The 2016 Austrian presidential election saw a run-off between the Green party candidate Alexander Van der Bellen and the Freedom Party of Austria’s (FPÖ) far-right candidate Norbert Hofer. This paper asks: how did voters of Hofer express their support on Facebook? It presents the results of a qualitative ideology analysis of 6,755 comments about the presidential election posted on the Facebook pages of FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache and FPÖ candidate Hofer. The results reveal insights into the contemporary political role of the online leadership ideology, online nationalism, new racism online, the friend/enemy-scheme online, and online militancy. Right-wing authoritarianism 2.0 is a complex problem that stands in the context of contemporary crises and demagoguery.

How to cite this chapter

Fuchs, C. 2018. Racism, Nationalism and Right-Wing Extremism Online: The Austrian Presidential Election 2016 on Facebook. In: Morelock, J, Critical Theory and Authoritarian Populism. London: University of Westminster Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/book30.i

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About Christian Fuchs

Christian Fuchs is Professor at, and the Director of, the Communication and Media Research Institute. He is also Director of the Westminster Institute for Advanced Studies.

His fields of expertise are critical digital & social media studies, Internet & society, political economy of media and communication, information society theory, social theory and critical theory.