AfD’s online movements: activism or slacktivism?

Do social media activists have an important role to play, or is it all slacktivism and should protestors go to the streets if they want impact?

AfD's resistance and supporting movements

Germany’s Christian far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has won 12.6% of the votes which makes them the third-largest party in German politics (Clarke, 2017). The AfD is the first far-right party to enter the parliament since World War II (Ellyatt, 2017). According to a recent study of Bertelsmann Stiftung much of AfD’s growing support is due to its refugee policy ("Majority of German voters do not hold populist views", 2017). The AfD supports direct democracy and separation of state powers. On the other hand, the AfD has also been accused of advocating neo-Nazi ideas and using neo-Nazi discourse. AfD is very conservative and a defender of the traditional nuclear family model.  A nuclear family is a family that consists of two parents and their children, in contrast to a family with more than two parents or a single parent family. The AfD is also anti – abortion and hostile to ‘alternative lifestyles’ (Chase, 2017). This seems strange considering Weidel’s prominent role in the AfD.

Taken these points of views, a large part of the resistance movement consists of left-wing parties and activists and LGBTQ-activists. AfD’s group of supporters consists mostly of extreme right-wing activists, Neo-Nazis, people who are anti – refugees and immigrants, homophobic people and christian fundamentalists. These supporters are also part of a growing online movement. In this article I will analyse AfD’s online supporting movements to find out if they are slacktivism.

AfD’s online supporting movement as a networked social movement

The AfD has a large online supporting movement. The movement protests against other political opponents by using specific hashtags, creating content on Youtube and memes. By produce ‘’ironic cool stuff’’ they are trying to create propaganda with an 'edgy feel' and push it in a network of different media. The AfD supporting movement can be considered a polycentric networked movement that is partly organized and partly organic. Castells conception of online activism and more in particular his defintion of networked social movements is only partially useful in understanding online activism supporting the AfD.

In this case the AfD supporting movement gained momentum during Merkel’s refugee policy. Activists used this movment to build support for a new right movement and for the AfD in particular. According to Castells networked social movements are ‘’usually triggered by a spark of indignation either related to a specific event or to peak of disgust with the actions of rulers’’ (Castells, 2013). In this case the AfD supporting movement was sparked mostly by Merkel’s refugee policy. The AfD supporting movement contradicts Castells definition of a networked social movement because he argues that networked movements are leaderless and are a spontaneous, online-mediated reaction (Levy, 2016) However, within this movement you can identify multiple leaders that instruct their ‘followers’ (Maly, 2017).

One of the leaders within this movement is Nikolai Alexander. Nikolai Alexander is the creator of ‘Reconquista Germanica’ which is a Youtube channel that publishes political videos and has 33,000 subscribers. Alexander tries to convince his subscribers in a 17-minute video to move to Discord, which is originally a communication platform for gamers. He wanted to use this platform because it makes it easier to organize online attacks. Using the strategy of moving users from Youtube or others platforms such as 4chan to Discord is not new. Discord also played a big role in the organization of the protests in Charlottesville (Schmehl & Broderick, 2017). Since this movement has clear goals and strategies it is not spontaneous, which is what Castells’ definition argues.

Hashtags #LautGegenMerkel and #WegMitMerkel

Reconquista Germanica, protests against Merkel, AfD’s biggest opponent, on social media, among other things, through the hashtags #LautGegenMerkel (loudly against Merkel) and #WegMitMerkel (away with Merkel).

The hashtag #LautGegenMerkel is used by right-wing supporters to protest against Merkel. The issue the users of this hashtag are concerned with is mostly Merkel’s refugee policy. They believe this policy is the cause of a lot of problems in Germany such as lack of safety, which is mentioned by a user in the above image. Furthermore, the users of this hashtag also believe refugees are a burden on social life and the economy.

Tweet by @yuma_1975 #LautGegenMerkel @yuma_1975

‘’Merkel has est durch ihre blöde Asylpolitik geschafft, dass Deutschland nun auf Platz 51 (!) der sichersten Länder ist’’ (‘’Merkel has only managed to make Germany number 51 (!) of the safest countries by its stupid asylum policy’’)

@SpohnMichael

One of the Twitter users answer that ‘’Auf Platz 51 ist wohl kaum noch die Rede von ‘’sicher’’ (‘’On place 51 there is hardly any ‘’safety’’). This tweet and the interactions it starts, is a  clear example of spreading ‘fake news’. In this context, it is clear that this ‘fake news’ is best considered as a political phenomenom. If we look at fake news with the concept of myth of George Sorel, we see that fake news makes sense as an instrument of political mobilization (Maly, 2018). According to Sorel myths are ‘’not descriptions of things, but expressions of a determination to act’’ (Sorel, 1907). Myths can form the political opinion of people. These stories exist and are true in the minds of people, the actions of these people bring these stories, which are imagined perceptions, to life, they create a new reality (Kassab, 2016).

The news that Yuma" is spreading in this tweet can be considered an example of such ‘mythical’ effect because of multiple reasons. In his tweet, Yuma refers to an article publish on Breitbart.com, the article is titled ‘’Terror risk sees germany slump to 51st place for security in world tourism rankings’’. This news website is known for its new right, nationalistic, anti-Islam and anti-migration editorial line and its support for Trump. The article states ‘’travellers have become wary of the security situation in Germany since Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany’s borders to well over a million people from the third world in 2015, resulting in the country being hit by a series of high-profile terror attacks'' (Hale, 2017). The writer of this article uses the news of Germany’s place in safety and security in tourism rankings and blames it on Merkel’s refugee policy. However, what is really the reason that Germany is number 51 in this ranking? This ranking is not based on numbers of terror attacks, but on the perception of 200 respondents and a research report that contains faulty data (Arab, 2017).

The Breitbart article and Yumo’s tweets are questionable if we look at it from a rational and factual point of view. But if we understand them as myths, we see how they function as powerful political mobilization tools. They go viral, they trigger people and touch their emotions (Maly, 2017). There are people that try to co-create reality, in this case, because the person is trying to deceive people in believing that Germany is an unsafe country and linking it to Merkel’s asylum policy. The goal is to make sure that Merkel loses supporters and the AfD gains supporters. While spreading fake news, the supporters are waging a discursive battle of meaning. According to Maly (2014) discursive battles are being ‘’waged over the definition of words, the interpretation of facts, the understanding of the ideology or the general image of the party’’.  In this particular case, the person is waging a discursive battle to let people know that safety and security is very bad in Germany and the reason for that is Merkel’s refugee policy. This policy is making sure that the German population is not protected for terroristic attacks and is not only doing nothing to improve the situation, but is only making it worse.

CNN

‘’Merkel = noch viel viel mehr Ausländer = Untergang Deutschland’’ (‘’Merkel = many many more foreigners = downfall Germany’’)

The hashtag #WegMitMerkel is also used to protest against Merkel and her refugee policy. This hashtags indicates that they do not want Merkel in the German parliament. The users from both these hashtags come mostly from users who have dedicated their profile to politics Their profile usually contains tweets protesting against opposing groups and politicians, retweets from other people who share their views, and tweets that share news that proof their points. Such activistic profiles are set up for purely political causes and are in a lot of cases automated as part of a botnetwork. Especially profiles that contain little personal information that produce a huge amount of tweets in a short period of time are all indicators of being a bot.

Bots are needed to make hashtags trending and to increase the amount of retweets and likes on a tweet. The risk of using 'ideological' hashtags and bots with a very explicit activistic profile is that their protest does not reach opponents. As such and as a result of the personalization algorithms changes are real that they will contribute to the establishment of a ‘filter bubble’. The term filter bubble was coined by Eli Pariser, he defines it as ‘’that personal ecosystem of information that’s been catered by these algorithms’’ (Pariser, 2011). In other words, what you see online is personalized based on past click behavior, search history and preferences, which results in users being isolated from information that differs from their own viewpoint. This means people who do not support AfD will likely not see these hashtags or other media they produce, unless it is directly targeted to them by mentioning or replying to them, or leaving messages under media the people they are trying to reach, will likely see.

AfD-Chan

This nationalist German activism in favour of AfD cannot be understood as a purely local affair. The local activism is connected to and integrated in a global new right niche (Maly, 2018). Concretely, we see that New Right movements from all over the world are embedded in digital infrastructures like Discord, YouTube and 4chan. In these infrastructures we see that German, Dutch, Brittisch, Swedish and American activists come together, meet and sometimes collaborate on national causes. 

The AfD-activists were clearly visible and organizing their battle in the 4chan/pol/thread. 4Chan is a message board that is used by AfD supporters in a similar way as Discord for Reconquista Germanica. People on 4Chan discuss their strategy, which was to start a meme war, hoping to influence the outcome of the election. However, the difference between Reconquista Germanica and 4Chan is that 4Chan is truly global. It is used to gain global support from the new right niche. Everything is written in English. Summaries of what AfD stands for are used to mobilize global activists. This is not a spontaneous action but something that they have been working on since February 2017 (Schmehl, 2017).

4Chan

The AfD trolls are inspired by right-wing movements from France and the United States and use similar strategies. On 4Chan dates are mentioned that serve as goals, videos are shared that explain the position of the AfD and links to archives with pro AfD memes. 

AfD Pepe the Frog tameans.com

Figure 7. Screenshot from "Truth Social" page on the App Store "Truth Social" on Apple App Store

There are three types of memes that can be identified. One meme that appears a lot on social media is a mix of AfD symbols and Pepe the Frog. Pepe the Frog is popular in the United States and a symbol for the alt-right movement. enOn 4Chan, one of the tasks is translating and converting English memes to German. So therefore these memes are rehashes of existing symbols and AfD symbols, which draws attention, makes them recognizable and easy to understand.

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Netherlands license

tameans.com

tameans.com

A big number of memes revolves around an AfD manga character called Afd-Chan This character is portrayed as a blue haired teenage girl, typically with a red AfD arrow hairpin and red tie. The main goal of these memes is to try to make the position and issues of the Afd easily understandable for people, so that they do not choose to vote for Merkel. Sometimes AfD-Chan is portrayed with other memes or symbols that are associated with the far-right. On the image below, AfD-Chan is portrayed with ‘German Michel’ who has been a symbol of German nationalism. He is drawn usually with a nightcap. On the image, Afd-Chan is pouring him coffee. The message is that he must wake up ("Meet AFD-Chan And Putsch-Chan, The Anime Girl Mascots Of The German Far Right", 2017).

Afd-Chan and German Michel

Slacktivism

'Slacktivism' is a blend out of the words 'slacker' and 'activism' and can be defined as ''The practice of supporting a political or social cause by means such as social media or online petitions, characterized as involving very little effort or commitment'' (''Slactivism'', n.d). The activists of the movements Reconquista Germanica and 4Chan are fighting for the same goals, and they do this by using the same strategies. They are fighting under the same hashtags and use the same symbols and memes. Their strategy works because their hashtags go viral. They aim for virality to let the voice of AfD circulate, to popularize that voice and silence the opposition. These people are not just pretending to advocate for a social cause, they are commiting time to this effort, therefore Reconquista Germanica and 4Chan are not considered slacktivism.. They are not trying to impress other with their 'social awareness', neither is this an act to add to their own ego gratification (Telofski, 2012). They are waging a discursive battle for meaning while spreading the voice of the AfD. The leaders of these group make sure the movement is mobilized and the people are active contributers to this movement. 

References

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Burton, J. (2017). The 25 Safest Countries In The World. WorldAtlas. Retrieved 28 November 2017

Chase, J. (2017). AfD: What you need to know about Germany's far-right party. DW.COM. Retrieved 18 October 2017

Clarke, S. (2017). German elections 2017: full results. the Guardian. Retrieved 18 October 2017

Ellyatt, H. (2017). 'I am afraid': First far-right party set to enter German parliament in over half a century. CNBC. Retrieved 17 October 2017

Hale, V. (2017). Terror Risk Sees Germany Slump to 51st Place for Security in World Tourism Rankings - Breitbart. Breitbart. Retrieved 25 November 2017

Kassab, H. (2016). The power of emotion in politics, philosophy, and ideology (p. 64).

Levy, H. (2016). Book Review: Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age by Manuel Castells. LSE Review of Books. Retrieved 25 November 2017

Majority of German voters do not hold populist views. (2017). Bertelsmann-stiftung.de. Retrieved 18 October 2017

Maly, I. (2014). New media, new resistance and mass media

Maly, I. (2017). Digital Media and Politics Class 10.

Maly, I. (2018). Nieuw Rechts. Berchem: Epo. 

Meet AFD-Chan And Putsch-Chan, The Anime Girl Mascots Of The German Far Right. (2017). Tameans.com. Retrieved 25 November 2017

Schmehl, K. (2017). Mit diesen Memes wollen AfD-Trolle die Bundestagswahl beeinflussen und in den "Meme-Krieg" ziehen. BuzzFeed. Retrieved 25 November 2017

Schmehl, K., & Broderick, R. (2017). A German YouTuber Tried To Make His Far-Right Hashtag Go Viral And It Was A Huge Flop. BuzzFeed. Retrieved 28 November 2017

slacktivism. Oxford Dictionaries | English. Retrieved 13 December 2017, 

Sorel, G. (1907). Georges Sorel, letter to Daniel Halevy (1907). Historyguide.org. Retrieved 24 November 2017

Telofski, R. (2012). Living on a Meme: How Anti-Corporate Activists Bend the Truth, and You, to Get What They Want (p. 79). iUniverse Inc.