Far-right extremists have been organizing online since before the internet – and AI is their next frontier
The persistent challenge of regulating online far-right extremism while safeguarding free speech has roots that trace back to the early days of home computing in the 1980s. Initially, far-right extremists relied on print propaganda, distributing newsletters and infamous texts like Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and William Pierce’s “The Turner Diaries” through the mail. This method was fraught with difficulties, including the risk of confiscation and the costs associated with production and distribution. However, the advent of personal computers and bulletin board systems (BBS) revolutionized their outreach efforts. By connecting through BBSes, such as the Aryan Nations Liberty Net established in 1984, these groups could share information, exchange messages, and disseminate propaganda more efficiently than ever before. This shift not only expanded their reach but also allowed them to create a network of supporters who could easily access and share their extremist content.
As the internet evolved in the mid-1990s, far-right groups quickly adapted to the new landscape. The launch of Stormfront in 1995 marked the first significant racial hate website, which the Southern Poverty Law Center linked to nearly 100 murders. In response to increased scrutiny and bans on right-wing content in countries like Germany, American white supremacists leveraged their First Amendment rights to host websites on unregulated U.S. servers, effectively bypassing international censorship. This pattern of exploiting technological advancements for radicalization continues today, as far-right extremists are now turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to create targeted propaganda and manipulate content. The emergence of AI tools, including chatbots with extremist views, presents a new frontier for these groups, posing additional challenges for those working to combat online hate and extremism.
In order to effectively counter the global spread of far-right extremism, a collaborative approach is essential, involving governments, NGOs, tech companies, and communities. The historical context of how these groups have adapted to technological changes serves as a stark reminder of their ingenuity in exploiting free speech protections. As society grapples with the implications of AI and other emerging technologies, staying ahead of far-right extremists’ tactics will require vigilance and innovation in countering their narratives and dismantling their digital networks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_dFeR66lmM
Neo-Nazis, like these in Orlando, Fla., organize on social media today but were early adopters of precursors to the internet in the 1980s.
Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
How can society police the global spread of online far-right extremism while still protecting free speech? That’s a question policymakers and watchdog organizations confronted as early as the 1980s and ’90s – and
it hasn’t gone away
.
Decades before
artificial intelligence
,
Telegram
and white nationalist
Nick Fuentes’ livestreams
, far-right extremists embraced the early days of home computing and the internet. These new technologies offered them a bastion of free speech and a global platform. They could share propaganda, spew hatred, incite violence and gain international followers like never before.
Before the digital era, far-right extremists radicalized each other primarily using print propaganda. They wrote their own newsletters and reprinted far-right tracts such as
Adolf Hitler
’s “
Mein Kampf
” and American neo-Nazi
William Pierce
’s “
The Turner Diaries
,” a dystopian work of fiction describing a race war. Then, they mailed this propaganda to supporters at home and abroad.
I’m a historian who
studies neo-Nazis and far-right extremism
. As
my research
shows, most of the neo-Nazi propaganda confiscated in Germany from the 1970s through the 1990s came from the United States. American neo-Nazis exploited their free speech under the First Amendment to bypass German censorship laws. German neo-Nazis then picked up this print propaganda and distributed it throughout the country.
This strategy wasn’t foolproof, however. Print propaganda could get lost in the mail or be confiscated, especially when crossing into Germany. Producing and shipping it was also expensive and time-consuming, and far-right organizations were chronically understaffed and strapped for cash.
Going digital
Computers, which
entered the mass market
in 1977, promised to help resolve these problems. In 1981,
Matt Koehl
, head of the National Socialist White People’s Party in the United States, solicited donations to “Help the Party Enter The Computer Age.” The American neo-Nazi
Harold Covington
begged for a printer, scanner and “serious PC” that could run WordPerfect word processing software. “Our multifarious enemies already possess this technology,” he noted, referring to Jews and government officials.
Soon, far-right extremists figured out how to connect their computers to one another. They did so by using
online bulletin board systems
, or BBSes, a precursor to the internet. A BBS was hosted on a personal computer, and other computers could dial in to the BBS using a modem and a terminal software program, allowing users to exchange messages, documents and software.
After personal computers became commonplace but before the internet, people connected online via bulletin board systems.
Blake Patterson/Flickr
,
CC BY
With BBSes, anyone interested in accessing far-right propaganda could simply turn on their computer and dial in to an organization’s advertised phone number. Once connected, they could read the organization’s public posts, exchange messages and upload and download files.
The first far-right bulletin board system, the
Aryan Nations Liberty Net
, was established in 1984 by
Louis Beam
, a high-ranking member of the
Ku Klux Klan
and
Aryan Nations
.
Beam explained
: “Imagine, if you can, a single computer to which all leaders and strategists of the patriotic movement are connected. Imagine further that any patriot in the country is able to tap into this computer at will in order to reap the benefit of all accumulative knowledge and wisdom of the leaders. ‘Someday,’ you may say? How about today?”
Then came violent
neo-Nazi computer games
. Neo-Nazis in the United States and elsewhere could upload and download these games via bulletin board systems, copy them onto disks and distribute them widely, especially to schoolchildren.
In the German
computer game KZ Manager
, players role-played as a commandant in a Nazi concentration camp that murdered Jews,
Sinti and Roma
, and
Turkish immigrants
. An early 1990s poll revealed that 39% of Austrian high schoolers
knew of such games
and 22% had seen them.
Arrival of the web
By the mid-1990s, with the introduction of the more user-friendly
World Wide Web
, bulletin boards fell out of favor. The first major racial hate website on the internet,
Stormfront
, was founded in 1995 by the American white supremacist
Don Black
. The civil rights organization Southern Poverty Law Center found that almost
100 murders
were linked to Stormfront.
By 2000, the German government had discovered, and banned, over
300 German websites
with right-wing content – a tenfold increase within just four years.
In response, American white supremacists again exploited their free speech rights to bypass German censorship bans. They gave international far-right extremists the opportunity to
host their websites
safely and anonymously on unregulated American servers – a strategy that continues today.
Up next: AI
The next frontier for far-right extremists is AI. They
are using
AI tools
to create targeted propaganda, manipulate images, audio and videos, and evade detection. The far-right social network Gab created a
Hitler chatbot
that users can talk to.
AI chatbots are also adopting the far-right views of social media users. Grok, the chatbot on Elon Musk’s X, recently called itself “
MechaHitler
,”
spewed antisemitic hate speech
and
denied the Holocaust
.
Countering extremism
Combating online hate
is a global imperative. It requires comprehensive international cooperation among governments, nongovernmental organizations, watchdog organizations, communities and tech corporations.
Far-right extremists have long pioneered innovative ways to exploit technological progress and free speech. Efforts to counter this radicalization are challenged to stay one step ahead of the far right’s technological advances.
Michelle Lynn Kahn has received funding from the National Humanities Center, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, American Historical Association, and American Jewish Archives.
