Watering down the wine : European Union regulation of violent right-wing extremism content and the securitisation of new online spaces

Abstract

The regulation of violent right-wing extremist online content in the European Union is facing a conundrum. On the one hand, pressure to respond to concern over violent right-wing extremism (or VRWE, a term used by the European Union to refer to ‘far right’) has led to a push to develop a coherent European-wide response. On the one hand, this has led to a watering down or ‘loosening’ of the concept and implementation, to come to policy agreements between Member States. On the other hand, we have also seen a broadening and expansion of key concepts around VRWE to include more online practices. We argue that this combination of ‘loosening’ the definition of far right, whilst simultaneously ‘broadening’ what constitutes far-right content, risks the securitisation of vast online practices - muddying the means for developing coherent and effective responses to VRWE in online spheres. This paper aims to explore the framing and securitisation of violent right-wing extremist content, by tracking the discursive construction of European content moderation policy tools over time.