ABSTRACT
This paper analyses the scale and nature of online ‘information operations’ by ‘far-right’ and ‘extreme-right’ online activists across three elections: the 2016 UK Referendum on EU membership, the 2016 US national elections and the 2017 French national elections. We define information operations as coordinated attempts to influence domestic or foreign political sentiment. By using online social listening tools, this chapter questions to what extent information operations were intensified or scaled up across these three elections; the extent to which efforts were coordinated internationally; and maps tactics used to ‘mainstream’ specific far-right ideologies targeted at average voters. The chapter concludes by analysing ways that governments, industries and civil society are tackling this challenge to various ends.
