An Online Environmental Scan of Right-Wing Extremism in Canada

Authors: Mackenzie Hart, Jacob Davey, Eisha Maharasingam-Shah, Aoife Gallagher, Ciarán O’Connor
Published: 19 July 2021

Researchers at ISD have collaborated with a team of analysts at Ontario Tech University (OUT), Michigan State University and the University of New Brunswick to track the online habits of Canadian RWEs over a period of two years. This report contains the findings of the second year of this study and presents key trends in the online activity of Canadian RWEs in 2020. It adds to the analysis provided in our interim report, which contains an overview of extremist trends from 2019.

This study draws on an analysis of over three million messages sent by over 2,400 groups, channels and accounts associated with Canadian RWE across Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, 4chan and Telegram, and is supplemented by ethnographic analysis of other, more fringe, platforms. The following report provides an overview of the key trends across social media platforms, before delving into an analysis of dynamics on specific social media ecosystems.

Download Report

Issues

Related

Shared Endeavour Fund: Theory of Change

The Theory of Change for the Shared Endeavour Fund was crafted to guide the design, delivery, and evaluation of the fund, unpacking the causal processes, assumptions & evidence supporting its implementation and outcomes.