Brief Takes // By Ben FrankelWords and Deeds: Increasingly Militant Social Media Discourse by Far-Left Extremists

Published 16 September 2020

The increasingly militant social media discourse by anarcho-socialist extremists is worrisome, even if far-left extremists are not viewed by security experts inside and outside government as posing as much of a domestic terrorism threat as do far-right extremists and Islamist jihadists — at least not yet. A new report by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) – a sequel to an earlier report on Boogaloo Bois — analyzes the increasingly militant languages of social media postings by anarcho-socialists, noting that on the far-right violent words preceded violent actions. It may be the case on the far-left as well.

In an increasingly connected world, there are plenty of opportunities for extremists to communicate, recruit, spread propaganda, and incite violence. From videos being shared on Facebook and Twitter, to more niche instant-messaging services such as Telegram, to coded postings on Gab, 4 Chan, and 8chan — the number and reach of communications channels available to extremists has never been greater.

The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), a non-partisan organization which lists the United Nations, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations among its affiliated partners, has developed a platform – Contextus – which uses machine-learning to track and expose extremist discourse online. In March we reported on NCRI’s earlier study of the far-right Bogaloo Bois (“Tool Identifies, Exposes Violent Extremists Online,” HSNW, 2 March 2020).

NCRI has now released a report — Network-Enables Anarchy: How Militant Anarcho-Socialist Networks Use Social Media to Instigate Widespread Violence Against Political Opponents and Law Enforcement — which analyzes the militant discourse on social media by what NCRI calls “anarcho-socialist extremists” (note that NCRI uses the term “anarchists” for some far-right extremists, too: It thus defines the far-right Boogaloo Bois as “Libertarian-anarchists”).

The increasingly militant social media discourse by anarcho-socialist extremists is worrisome, even if far-left extremists are not viewed by security experts inside and outside government as posing as much of a domestic terrorism threat as do far-right extremists and Islamist jihadists — at least not yet.

The NCRI report makes this point, saying: “This analysis does not suggest that violence from anarcho-socialist militants has yet become as widespread as ISIS nor does it have the death toll or historical reach that right-leaning extremism has in the U.S. However, anarcho-socialist bloodshed has been historically substantial on other continents and Western countries.”

Other students of current far-left violence have reached the same conclusions. A detailed study of the recruitment and mobilization strategy of antifa and anarchist groups (Ariel Koch, “Trends in Anti-Fascist and Anarchist Recruitment and Mobilization,” Journal for Deradicalization [2018]) notes that “While most of the research on radicalization and political violent extremism focuses on jihadism or the contemporary right-wing extremism,” it is important not to ignore “left-wing extremism, which is embodied today in violent anarchists and anti-fascists.” Koch points out that this “new revolutionary left…. reflect[s] a threat that is developing in Europe, North America and the Middle East.”

But after 50 pages of dense and detailed examination, Koch reaches the same conclusions NCRI has reached, an assessment shared by all security experts and analysts of political violence. Koch writes:

Yet, this threat [from antifa and the anarchists] is negligible compared with the threats posed by both right-wing extremists and jihadists. In other words, it is necessary to be aware of the anarchists’ challenge, but one has to be careful not to exaggerate it.

NCRI correctly points out that in Europe, violence from far-left extremists is more of a problem than it is in the United States. It was even more so in the past. For about twenty-five years, from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, far-left extremist violence was the main domestic terrorism threat in Western Europe – the Baader-Mainhoff Gang in Germany, Brigate Rosse in Italy, Action Directe in France, and many others — but it has since been eclipsed by Islamist Jihadist and far-right terrorism.