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105

Exploring Left-Wing Extremism on the Decentralized Web: An Analysis of Lemmygrad.ml (arxiv.org)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by LemmySlopSkimmer@hexbear.net to c/slop@hexbear.net

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This study investigates the presence of left-wing extremism on the Lemmygrad.ml instance of the decentralized social media platform Lemmy, from its launch in 2019 up to a month after the bans of the subreddits r/GenZedong and r/GenZhou.

We conduct a temporal analysis on Lemmygrad.ml’s user activity, with also measuring the degree of highly abusive or hateful content. Furthermore, we explore the content of their posts using a transformer-based topic modeling approach.

Our findings reveal a substantial increase in user activity and toxicity levels following the migration of these subreddits to Lemmygrad.ml.

We also identify posts that support authoritarian regimes, endorse the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and feature anti-Zionist and antisemitic content.

Overall, our findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of political extremism within decentralized social networks and emphasize the necessity of analyzing both ends of the political spectrum in research.

https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/40188039

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[–] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 31 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The paper makes constant references to toxicity, extremism, and hate speech, and uses a variety of tools to quantify them, but nowhere are those terms defined. This is the only section with examples:

Popular discussion themes of Lemmygrad.ml. Table 1 presents the top 20 topics with most posts on Lemmygrad.ml. We find that users on Lemmygrad.ml frequently discuss two AES countries, China and North Korea, with many posts expressing support for them. An example post from c/genzedong:

“DPRK IS THE ONLY KOREA, IMPERIALISTS CONTINUE TO OCCUPY THE SOUTHERN REGION OF DPRK.”

In the topic related to Ukraine, we find many posts supporting or justifying the Russian invasion of Ukraine. An example post from c/politics:

“No one’s asking you to be ok with all the horrors of war. But if we don’t understand what started it, we won’t be able to finish it. Ukraine’s ethnic cleansing of Russians, suppression of the LPR and DPR, and flirtation with NATO must stop if ever this war will end.”

We find that discussions on the Israel-Palestine conflict primarily criticize Israel. While many posts condemn antisemitism, we also encounter numerous posts that extend beyond criticizing Israel, displaying anti-Zionism and even antisemitism. An example post from c/communism:

[quotes a removed comment from a banned user]

Besides relatively mundane topics, we see topics related to ideologies, economics, and countries, where posts predominantly reflect Marxist/Leninist or Maoist perspectives.

Takeaways. Our results show that users of Lemmygrad.ml frequently share posts that support authoritarian regimes, as seen in their support for China, North Korea, and Russia. Moreover, their support can extend beyond backing these authoritarian regimes, even cheering on their violent actions, as evidenced by their posts on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Additionally, we observe anti-Zionist and antisemitic behaviors, which show similarities to right-wing extremism (Zannettou et al. 2020). Our analysis suggests a concerning endorsement of authoritarian actions and extremist rhetoric on Lemmygrad.ml, further indicating that left-wing extremist communities on decentralized platforms should receive more attention from the academic community.

[–] FishLake@lemmygrad.ml 28 points 3 days ago

While many posts condemn antisemitism, we also encounter numerous posts that extend beyond criticizing Israel, displaying anti-Zionism and even antisemitism.

Kind of gives away the game there with that “even”, as if to say anti-zionism is a precursor or a prerequisite to antisemitism.