Sunbelt Conference 2024
At Sunbelt Confrence Harald Sick will give a talk on tracing community building among German far-right and conspiracy influencers on YouTube
Saturday, 29.06.2024, 8:30am – 10:10am, Edinbough, Scottland
The conference will take place from 24th June to 30th June 2024 and is the fisrt to take place in Edinburgh, Scottland. The theme of this year`s Sunbelt is »Networks and Resilience«, with Harald Sick`s Input being one of many.
»Subscribe to Subversion! Tracing Community Building Among German Far-Right and Conspiracy Influencers on YouTube«
YouTube has become an important platform for far-right actors and conspiracy ideologues, enabling them to build online communities, spread misinformation and organize followers. This study examines their appropriation of YouTube to promote extreme ideologies, focusing on controversial topics such as immigration, the COVID-19 pandemic and anti-Semitic narratives. It examines how conspiracy ideologies are deployed to legitimize their claims and transform YouTube into a tool for video activism that alters perceptions of socio-political identities and adapts street politics for online audiences.
Our investigation draws on a dataset of around 200,000 links to YouTube content shared by a network of roughly 1,500 German far-right and conspiracy ideologues, including anti-vaccination proponents, all under surveillance on Telegram. By analyzing the captions of the YouTube videos, we uncover the thematic commonalities that thread these communities together. We also examine the social dynamics of community building on YouTube by constructing a network of commentators, revealing the scope and scale of interaction. We are furthermore exploring direct collaboration between these YouTube channels through reciprocal invitations to shows and interviews.
You would like to read about it in German? The talk is based on our research for the upcoming Trendreport that BAG »Gegen Hass im Netz« presented at Das NETTZ Community Event 2024 and all results will be available at the end of July. Sign up for our newsletter and get it delivered directly to your inbox!