The far-right is decentralizing online

In line with those trends, and following debacles like the backlogs of digital evidence produced during the Unite the Right trial over a 2017 hate march in Charlottesville, Virginia, as well as similar evidence and arrests following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, there has been a general push among far-right organizations towards decentralization. For example, the national leadership of the Proud Boys dissolved after the Capitol riot. The group has splintered almost entirely into a number of local chapters across the country, as has their presence on Telegram. According to the New York Times, statistics from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project show that Proud Boys showed up at 145 events in 2021, up from 137 in 2020, reflecting their switch to regional causes like anti-vaxx and anti-mandate protests.

Shannon Hiller, the executive director of the Bridging Divides Initiative, told the Times the data likely understates how many times Proud Boys showed up, as it doesn’t include events like school and health board meetings. She added the trend was concerning, as in 2020 the group mostly mobilized en masse only shortly before the elections.

Similar trends are happening with a number of other groups.

“While the larger social media platforms will continue to struggle with de-platforming extremism, it is likely that the cascade to less regulated affinity-based and encrypted platforms will also continue, overlaying a fractured communication terrain on to an already splintered and polarized electorate,” Professor Brian Levin, a professor of criminal justice at California State University San Bernardino and director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, told Gizmodo.

“This cascade across multiple platforms will likely produce increasingly, though not exclusively, a reversion to regionalized low-level conflicts, that may spread, escalate, or be punctuated by violence from cells or loners who radicalize and network online,” Levin added.