How fascism runs rampant in the playgrounds of todays algorithms
Summary
Historians say that the current era facilitates new forms of fascism. Fascist techniques correspond to the operation of social media algorithms: reinforcing fears, spreading ‘alternative truths’ and the logic of numbers (the fact that many people say it, makes it true). Therefore, a new perspective on fascism is needed because, in their view, digital fascism is built primarily on digital (hate) cultures. That is why this paper introduces a new concept: algorithmic fascism. This is explained using the tweets posted from January to November 2022 by Forum for Democracy’s MPs and by that party’s account. Those tweets are analyzed through social media critical discourse analysis, split into content and usage analysis. The content analysis looks at what is written, said or seen in a post, a usage analysis looks at how a medium and its affordances are used. The analysis shows that the content of the tweets and the way the medium is used by the six accounts studied together, show great similarities to how experts describe modern (digital) fascism. However, this is not the case for the accounts separately: each account exhibits some of the characteristics. This is what makes the term algorithmic fascism relevant, because through the platform’s algorithms, not all accounts have to exhibit every element to show users the overall picture. When Twitter accounts work together, for example by regularly mentioning, retweeting or responding to each other, an algorithm places them in the same group, which means users do not have to follow all accounts to still receive every element. This study therefore recommends that when examining the far right and fascism on social media, groups or networks should be examined rather than individual accounts. It is important to consider that this study did not include all accounts of all Forum for Democracy representatives: thus, the conclusions are also not representative of the party as a whole. This could be expanded in follow-up research. A comparison with other parties is also interesting, as is the use of other social media platforms, in order to make a broader statement about algorithmic fascism.