GNET Article on the Monetisation of Digital Hate in Germany
Pablo Jost and Harald Sick explain how anti-democratic actors turn hatred and incitement into a business modell.
Anti-democratic actors monetise their shared content in the virtual world, they engage in video streaming and use blockchain technology as well as marketing strategies to mobilise supporters. Sick and Jost make evident where the money flows and coin a grippy terminology for their actors of interest:
Such actors »have brought about a commercialisation of political activism, as well as a new form of entrepreneurship, enriching certain individuals along the way. Taken together, we are seeing the emergence of a new type of actor who turns hatred and incitement into a business model: the milieu manager. Unlike a movement leader who advances the far-right interests through convincing leadership and organisational talents, the aim of the milieu manager is to market themself«.