This joint report by ISD and German campaign group, ‘Ich Bin Hier’, maps the rise and nature of far-right hate speech in Germany. It combines quantitative data-analysis from Facebook comment sections with insights gained from ethnographic research in far-right chat groups.

The report demonstrates that a relatively small portion of highly active users are responsible for a disproportionate amount of hateful far-right online content. The findings strongly suggest that far-right trolls use sophisticated media strategies to spread hate campaigns online. A small, but well-coordinated network of far-right accounts are therefore able to mainstream their ideas by influencing media reporting, and in turn, public debate by creating a false impression of representing a wider portion of society than they actually do.