Online Extremism Expert Says Far Right Has Adapted ISIS Playbook
SITE Intelligence’s Rita Katz on the growing threat of a “more radicalized and dangerous” underground in America.
Katz was born in Iraq and educated in Tel Aviv. She founded SITE after Sept. 11. She documented planning of violence in online forums in the weeks before the Capitol riot and is writing a book about the online tactics of jihadis and the far right.
Photographer: Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post/Getty ImagesRita Katz, the founder of SITE Intelligence, which tracks extremism online, says the growth in right-wing radicalization in the U.S. stems from President Trump’s behavior and the dynamics of social media.
ISIS and this new far right have had remarkably similar trajectories. Both were formed out of rejection of their movements’ establishments, both were adept at leveraging social media for recruitment and setting up vast online infrastructures, and both have prioritized action over a coherent ideology. At times the far right was following in lockstep with ISIS’s playbook online, down to the very platforms they used.