Assistant Professor Maria Y. Rodriguez and colleagues publish article, "'Welcome to Gab': Exploring political discourses in a non-moderated social media platform"

Kudos to Assistant Professor Maria Y. Rodriguez and colleagues on the publication of their article, "'Welcome to Gab': Exploring political discourses in a non-moderated social media platform" in IDEAH: Interdisciplinary Digital Engagement in Arts & Humanities.

Than, N., Yoong, D., Rodriguez, M. Y., & Windel, F. M. (2021). “Welcome to Gab”: Exploring political discourses in a non-moderated social media platform. IDEAH: Interdisciplinary Digital Engagement in Arts & Humanities.

The ecosystem of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook has increased the ease of global communication, particularly opinion sharing. As a predominantly online movement (Berger, “The Alt-Right” 4; Heikkilä 4), the alt-right—an umbrella term for loosely affiliated right-wing political movements across the world, centered in the United States (Berger, “The Alt-Right” 4)—has been proficient at utilizing and leveraging digital tools for recruitment and propaganda (Daniels, “The Algorithmic Rise” 64). undefined Its propensity for adopting these technologies to amplify and share its ideologies with different publics and communities (Lewis 3; McIlroy-Young and Anderson 651) is connected to a much longer legacy of white supremacy (Daniels, “The Algorithmic Rise” 61). Being early adopters of new media technology, the alt-right is primed to interact with younger users who often spend significant time on these platforms (Lewis 15). Recent features in the New York Times (Roose) and Washingtonian (“What Happened After”) have shown that younger white men on various social media platforms have been “radicalized” by the rhetoric of the alt right. In part as a response to the extremist and conspiratorial content created by the alt-right on social media, several mainstream social media platforms have created stronger content moderation policies such as banning users who spread conspiracy theories, engage in hate speech, and repeatedly harass others online. This has resulted in a concurrent abandonment of mainstream social media platforms and the development of more content-permissive platforms, such as Gab (Berger, “The Alt-Right” 35).