Technology

White supremacist memes are mainstream at this point and have been for a long time. I wish the article highlighted the intentional nature of these groups. These are not organic trends(during the start seeding and boosting phase).

Once they get picked up they do big numbers and the scary part is they dont just get recommended to people deep in the rightwing pipeline.

Moderation systems on social media platforms aim to remove overt extremist propaganda. These systems work imperfectly, but overt propaganda is unlikely to reach mass audiences before being removed.

Instead, far-right actors often use generative AI to mask racial ideology behind seemingly benign tropes from science fiction and fantasy. This allows a “de-demonising” of their ideas. Elf-like depictions of the “Aryan” inhabitants of Agartha, or footage of an underground utopia, make the idea of a white ethnostate seem palatable.

The engaging aesthetic keeps people watching longer. In turn, this triggers the algorithm to push the video to wider audiences.