“It Feels Like Coming Home”: Dutch Far-Right Echo Chambers as Identity-Driven Communities

Abstract

Contemporary right-wing extremism has largely shifted from the offline environment to the digital sphere. The Internet not only allows the far-right to optimize its activities’ effectiveness, it also provides a space where the far-right network has constructed decentralized, close-knit communities. Scholarship on online extremism, primarily stemming from Media Studies or counterterrorism, has defined these communities as echo chambers in which constant interaction with like-minded peers facilitates the reinforcement, amplification, and internalization of extremist thought. However, little research exists on what draws people to extremist echo chambers. This thesis responds to this gap in the literature by developing a framework of echo chambers as identity-driven communities. After identifying the mechanisms of the desire to belong, the need for a secure sense of self, and the protection of human needs, these three elements are analyzed through a case study based on secondary data of the Dutch far-right, with specific attention to the identitarian, alt-right, and accelerationist strands. The thesis finds that the desire to belong and the experience of relative needs deprivation are most prevalent in mobilizing individuals to join online extremist echo chambers. To this end, it offers valuable academic insights and encourages an alternative approach to future policy development.