ISD Glossary
ISD’s Glossary provides clear definitions of key terms related to extremism, hate, information operations and tech accountability. This page is continually reviewed to ensure accuracy.
Affordances
Affordances are the specific technical capabilities offered by individual platforms to their users, also referred to as functionality.
Akh-right
A play on the words ‘akhi’ (Arabic for brother) and ‘alt-right’: a self-description used by Gen-Z Islamists who borrow memes and references from alt-right subculture.
All Lives Matter
The slogan “all lives matter” has its origins as an inclusive alternative to the “Black lives matter” slogan for those who felt this was a divisive or exclusionary term. However, this phrase has also been adopted by extremist and hate groups to highlight alleged hypocrisy by racial justice protests or to discredit the Black Lives Matter movement.
Alt-Tech
Alt-tech describes social media platforms used by groups and individuals who believe their political views have made major social media platforms inhospitable to them. This includes platforms built to advance specific political purposes; libertarian platforms that tolerate a wide range of political positions, including hateful and extremist ones; and platforms which were built for entirely different, non-political purposes like gaming.
Alternative Media/News
We categorise a given online news outlet as “alternative” based on the self-description of the news outlet as a corrective to a perceived political and media mainstream, i.e. if the front page or about section of the website or the social media channels features a self-description as alternative / different / anti-mainstream / revolutionary, and/or features (variants of) the following keywords and phrases: politically incorrect / controversial / provocative, “focusing on issues disregarded by other media”, “free of censorship / dedicated to the freedom of the press,” and “committed to the truth”.
Alternatively, "based on the self-description of the news outlet as a corrective to a perceived political and media mainstream” noting that “alternative media channels do not automatically express right-wing political viewpoints."
Alternative Medicine
“Alternative medicine” is a collective term used to describe diagnostic and therapeutic approaches that are positioned as an alternative to science-based medicine. It has been proven that many of these therapeutic methods are no more effective than a placebo. Homeopathy and anthroposophy hold a special legal status in this regard, since the German Medicinal Products Act recognises them as special therapeutic options and they are exempt from needing to provide scientific evidence of their effectiveness. Alternative medicine often strays into the realm of Pseudoscience.
Anti-abortion content
ISD considers anti-abortion content to encompass content explicitly opposing abortion procedures, as well as content seeking to misrepresent abortion by spreading false or misleading information about the procedure and promoting unsafe methods of ‘reversing’ an abortion (e.g. ‘abortion pill reversal’). It also includes content from pages, individuals or organisations that self-describe as anti-abortion or “pro-life”.
Anti-feminist
Anti-feminist claims oppose or reject feminist concerns and positions and constitute a central way of thinking and ideology among the far-right. Anti-feminism acts as a bridge to the centre of society, normalising far-right and anti-diversity attitudes and resentments, and thereby undermining democracy and weakening social cohesion.
Anti-Lockdown Movement
During the COVID19- pandemic, opposition to the lockdown policies of the German government united a broad range of actors, ranging from far-right activists, influencers and media outlets to non-extremist actors which were not previously known to be involved in political activism.
Anti-vaccine/vaccine sceptic
The terms “vaccine sceptic” and “anti-vaxxer” cover a wide range of attitudes that are characterised by distrust of a specific vaccine or vaccines in general. Vaccine sceptics are not categorically opposed to vaccines, but have reservations of varying degrees about them. Certain vaccine sceptics accept some vaccines but reject others, sometimes including the COVID-19 vaccines. By way of contrast, anti-vaxxer are fundamentally opposed to vaccines. Their reasons range from suppositions derived from conspiracy theories to the deeply held belief that all vaccines.
