Northampton Electronic Collection of Theses and Research

Pioneers of World Wide Web Fascism: The British Extreme Right and Web 1.0

Jackson, P. (2020) Pioneers of World Wide Web Fascism: The British Extreme Right and Web 1.0. In: Lee, B. and Littler, M. (eds.) Digital Extremisms : Readings in Violence, Radicalisation and Extremism in the Online Space. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmilan. pp. 13-36.

Item Type: Book Section
Abstract: This chapter explores the ways that, around the turn of the millennium, British fascist organisations, such as the British National Party, and leading ideologues, such as David Irving, developed websites as part of their activism. It uses the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to engage in a ‘web history’ of this early online activism by British fascists. It argues that websites could sometimes be used to help present British fascist politics as more respectable, as in the case of the BNP, or alternatively as a way to allow activists access to the fringe cultic milieu of British fascism, steeped in conspiracy theories, overt neo-Nazism and other ideas deeply oppositional to mainstream perspectives. It concludes that, although often amateurish and poorly resourced, British fascist groups were often eager early adopters of Web 1.0, and argues that a deeper understating of this early ‘web history’ offers important context for those studying contemporary forms of extreme right online activism.
Uncontrolled Keywords: groupuscular, cultic milieu, fascism, neo-Nazi, web history
Creators: Jackson, Paul
Editors: Lee, Benjamin and Littler, Mark
Publisher: Palgrave Macmilan
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: ?? ASHUM ??
Date: 12 March 2020
Date Type: Publication
Page Range: pp. 13-36
Title of Book: Digital Extremisms : Readings in Violence, Radicalisation and Extremism in the Online Space
Series Name: Palgrave Studies in Cybercrime and Cybersecurity
Number: 1
Place of Publication: Basingstoke
Number of Pages: 24
Language: English
ISBN: 9783030301385
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30138-5
Status: Published / Disseminated
Refereed: Yes
URI: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/12572

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