How Image-Based Social Media Websites Support Social Movements

The Internet has disrupted the traditional progression of social movements. We explore common characteristics of image-based activism on Instagram by qualitatively analyzing 300 Instagram posts from three social movements: Black Lives Matter, the battle against defunding Planned Parenthood, and the backlash against the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act. We found that common types of images emerged among the three social movements, indicating a possible underlying pattern in social movement content posted on Instagram. Users also engage in workarounds to leverage Instagram toward a collective goal, going beyond the features offered by the platform to communicate their message. These findings have implications for future work studying social movement theories online

The ‘Autonomous Nationalists’: new developments and contradictions in the German neo-Nazi movement

This article examines the action repertoires, symbolism and political ideology of the ‘Autonomous Nationalists’ (Autonome Nationalisten in German) that have emerged as a sub-cultural youth trend within the German extreme right. Agitating within a landscape of networked, extra-parliamentary neo-Nazi organisations, Autonomous Nationalist activism forms a specific subsection within the German extreme right that copies the styles, codes and militancy of anarchist and radical left activists. A political analysis of its texts and slogans reveals a self- definition as ‘anti-capitalist’ and ‘national socialist’. A particular mobilisation potential beyond the traditional and party-political forms of extreme nationalism is fuelled by an openly displayed confrontational militancy, mostly directed at anti-fascist and left-wing groups and individuals, and by strong counter-cultural aspects. The article analyses how this emphasis on individual forms of expressions and rebellion appears to stand in contradiction with fascist understandings of organisation and has put the movement at odds with the established neo-Nazi scene in Germany

New Religious Authority of Islamic Millennial: A Study of Rohis Community in Medan City

Teenagers, or today mostly known as millennial generation, is transition phase from the child to the adult category. They look for identity through various activities such as Rohis community. This research focuses on how Rohis community of Madrasah Aliyah Negeri (MAN) in Medan city determines religious authority. The study also discusses how this spiritual community organized the group, built the network strategy, strengthened solidarity, and constructed an Islamic identity. The object of research is Muslim millennial generations who are member of Rohis of Madrasah Aliyah Negeri. This study results in a fact that this group does not follow the conventional religious authority but populism. The culture of populism with gadget as part of the life style including social media applications has constructed the spiritual identity especially in choosing and sorting out religious teachings to practice. The religious authority shifted form conventional to a new determining power, such as to determine patterns, shapes, styles and ways of practicing Islamic teachings. Their religiosity suggests symbolic identities, such as dressing, religious rituals and Islamic jargon can recognize among teenagers in the public sphere. Referring to the revealed they can be identified as groups inclined to the "culture of Wahabism". Culture "New Wahabism" is appearing in a new form in strengthening the network of “da'wah” through social media

The Alt-Right and Global Information Warfare

The Alt-Right is a neo-fascist white supremacist movement that is involved in violent extremism and shows signs of engagement in extensive disinformation campaigns. Using social media data mining, this study develops a deeper understanding of such targeted disinformation campaigns and the ways they spread. It also adds to the available literature on the endogenous and exogenous influences within the US far right, as well as motivating factors that drive disinformation campaigns, such as geopolitical strategy. This study is to be taken as a preliminary analysis to indicate future methods and follow-on research that will help develop an integrated approach to understanding the strategies and associations of the modern fascist movement.Comment: Presented and published through IEEE 2019 Big Data Conferenc

La evolución del activismo digital en México: una historia de dos movimientos "EZLN" y "43 Ayotzinapa"

There is an important tradition in Mexico related to the use of the Internet as a communication strategy for distributing subversive and alternative political discourse since mid-1995, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), named after Manuel Castells as the first "informational guerrilla," until now with the use of social networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) as optimal spaces to promote alternative social movements such as "I am 132." The purpose of this paper is to make a comparative study in between the movements "EZLN" and "43 Ayotzinapa." Methodology is based on the comparative analysis of cases through the revision of academic literature and original material generated by activists. It focuses not only on studying their political propositions, but particularly on their tactics and the role played by technology in the construction of their discourse. Final outcomes will show in what way the technological change along the years has conditioned the form by which unsubordinated groups create and spread information and how technological platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have facilitated the communication and social participation of movements, but the research also pretend to understand until which level activists use tactics that have somewhat altered in more than 20 years.Hay una tradición importante en México relacionada con el uso de Internet como estrategia de comunicación para difundir el discurso político subversivo y alternativo que se extiende desde mediados de 1995, con el Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN), nombrado por Manuel Castells como el primera "guerrilla informacional", hasta el siglo XXI con la consolidación de las redes sociales como espacios óptimos para la promoción de movimientos alternativos. El trabajo es un estudio comparativo entre los movimientos "EZLN" y "43 Ayotzinapa." La metodología se basa en el análisis comparativo de casos a través de la revisión de la bibliografía existente sobre el tema, así como de los materiales generados por los activistas. La investigación se focaliza no solo en estudiar sus proposiciones políticas, sino particularmente sus tácticas, así como el papel desempeñado por la tecnología en la construcción del discurso de ambos movimientos.Ciencias de la Comunicació

Activismo ciudadano y acontecimientos políticos en la transformación de la esfera pública digital en españa: del sms ¡pásalo! a Podemos

This paper discusses digital communication, activism and political system in Spain from a critical-historical perspective. The results of combined empirical and analytical research indicate that a critical digital public sphere emerged in 2004 affecting the evolution of the political sphere to this day. Traditional parties had a slow and instrumental approach to the digital realm. Conversely, cyber-activism unfolded new options of political action, both in the short and long term, transforming the bipartisan system.El artículo aborda la comunicación digital, el activismo y el sistema político en España desde una perspectiva crítica-histórica. Los resultados de una investigación empírica y analítica indican que en 2004 surgió una esfera pública digital crítica que afectó la evolución de la esfera política hasta hoy. Los partidos tradicionales se acercaron al entorno digital de manera lenta e instrumental. En cambio, el ciberactivismo abrió nuevas opciones de acción política, a corto y largo plazo, transformando el sistema bipartidista

‘Shell to Sea’ in Ireland: building social movement potency

In 1996 the Corrib gas field, holding over 1 trillion cubic feet of gas, was discovered by Enterprise Oil 83km off the North West coast of Ireland. Acquired by Shell in 2002, proposed extraction and processing is now a co-venture between several multinational energy corporations who aim to transport the gas some 90kms via pipeline to an onshore refinery site at Bellanaboy. Although heralded as a significant opportunity for development and employment by Shell and participating companies, local resistance to the proposals, on social and environmental grounds, has been sustained and effective. Mirroring global conflicts between the petrochemical industry and local people and lifeworlds, this resistance has elicited repressive responses, including the jailing of local landowners by the Irish state following their resistance to unprecedented compulsory land acquisition orders, and the taking out of a court injunction by Shell in 2005. Drawing on elements of contemporary social movement theory, and on both field research and analysis of campaign documents and media reports, this paper seeks to describe and reflect on the shape and spread of the social movement that has arisen in response to this development project. We focus on the ‘Shell to Sea’ campaign which has argued for the offshore, as opposed to the onshore, development of the gas field, and has garnered support from many other social movement groups and networks. In particular we consider the use of alternative media in strengthening shared networks of concern and in engaging critically with corporate media representations of both the project and the mobilisation. We conclude that social movement effectiveness and potency is in large part an outcome of collective and subjective commitments to intense work effort and the sharing of felt solidarity regarding environmental and social concerns; and we iterate the significance of affective and subjective dimensions of social movement activities alongside more conventional descriptions of work practices and structuring contexts

Cloaked Facebook pages: Exploring fake Islamist propaganda in social media

This research analyses cloaked Facebook pages that are created to spread political propaganda by cloaking a user profile and imitating the identity of a political opponent in order to spark hateful and aggressive reactions. This inquiry is pursued through a multi-sited online ethnographic case study of Danish Facebook pages disguised as radical Islamist pages, which provoked racist and anti-Muslim reactions as well as negative sentiments towards refugees and immigrants in Denmark in general. Drawing on Jessie Daniels’ critical insights into cloaked websites, this research furthermore analyses the epistemological, methodological and conceptual challenges of online propaganda. It enhances our understanding of disinformation and propaganda in an increasingly interactive social media environment and contributes to a critical inquiry into social media and subversive politics

Lipdubs as an Instrument to Overcome Invisibility in the Mass-Media. A study of four enthusiastic cases recorded in Quebec, USA, Catalonia and the Basque Country

This paper summarizes the principal conclusions of an investigation into lipdub as an instrument used by social movements in order to get more social influence. Since its creation in 2006, the phenomenon of lipdubs has increased\ud considerably. This research presents an analytical model for this type of video, providing general data, figures about the number of participants, characteristics of the song used and information about the profile of the audience. The work\ud highlights the main hypothetical features and components of a good lipdub. Four videos with high impact on Youtube are analyzed. This work claims that, at this time, a good lipdub can be a crucial tool for social movements in order to\ud overcome the invisibility with which the mass-media often punishes any expression which challenges mainstream tendencies