GNET Report Launch: Far-Right Extremism and Digital Book Publishing
Where: Online via Zoom
When: Monday 23 September, 13:00 BST/ 08:00 EST
What: 30-minute presentation of report findings, followed by 30-minute moderated Q&A
The Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET) invites you to attend an online report launch for Dr Helen Young and Prof. Geoff M. Boucher’s new GNET Report ‘Far-Right Extremism and Digital Book Publishing.’
The event will comprise of a 30-minute presentation of the report findings, followed by a 30-minute moderated Q&A.
Digital publishing, sale and distribution of books have contributed significantly to the dissemination and mainstreaming of far-right extremist (FRE) material in the 21st century. Historical and contemporary books that espouse politically and ideologically motivated violence circulate widely and easily online, in both FRE and mainstream spaces. Such books include, but are not limited to: the speeches of Adolf Hitler, William L. Pierce’s The Turner Diaries, Theodore Kaczynski’s Industrial Society and its Future (The Unabomber Manifesto), James Mason’s Siege, and anthologies produced by the Iron March forum and Terrorgram Collective.
Commercial book publication, sales, distribution and sharing platforms play a significant role in enabling the circulation of FRE material, as this report details through analysis of Amazon, Google Play, Rakuten Kobo, Goodreads, and Scribd and its e-book-platform, Everand. An autoethnographic ‘snowball’ methodology was used, exploiting the features of commercial book platforms, such as search functions and algorithmically driven recommendations. FRE books were quickly and easily located on all platforms analysed.