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.
Nativism
The term nativism refers to a political ideology or movement that stands for the prioritisation of the interests of “native inhabitants” of a country or region over those of immigrants and newcomers.
NetzDG
The Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) is a law that came into force on 1 October 2017 and was last amended in May 2021 with the aim of strengthening law enforcement on the internet. The aim of this act is to more effectively combat punishable hate speech and other punishable content on social networks. Its scope for the obligation to remove unlawful content includes platforms with at least two million registered users in Germany.
Nihilistic violence
Nihilistic violence refers to acts lacking an ideological motivation and instead driven by a misanthropic worldview. While it often resembles extremist violence in both its nature and aesthetics, nihilistic violence seeks to fulfil emotional needs, or to gain notoriety/acceptance in online communities. Adherent are often part of digital subcultures such as the True Crime Community (TCC) and pseudo-Satanic No Lives Matter (NLM), both linked to the wider 764 network. The line between nihilistic and extremist violence is often blurred by the veneration of similar figures or the use of shared iconography: the difference between them is that while extremists are driven by a desire to achieve social change (e.g. forcing immigrants to leave Western countries), nihilists simply hope to gain fame.
