How Platform Architectures Shape Far-Right Online Activism

How does social media shape far-right mobilisation? Social media technologies have given a stronger voice to non-party actors, such as movements, online communities, vloggers and conservative media outlets. Which of these actors can mobilise and gain prominence online is linked to the opportunities offered by platforms’ design and policies. Online, actors can make swift repertoire switches, and as a consequence the features of actors’ have converged. This has made existing typologies for classifying political actors less relevant. This study provides a typology to classify the actors that mobilise online. The study continues by arguing that variations in social media architectures shape the type and prominence of actors that mobilise online. This argument is empirically supported by a cross-platform analysis of networks of far-right actors on three social media platforms.