Government-Run On-Line Extremism

'Evidence suggests certain governments have operated fake far-right social media accounts ...' Classic authoritarianism by 'democracies'. 

From The European Conservative

By Carlos Perona Calvete

Evidence suggests certain governments have operated fake far-right social media accounts, raising the prominence of ‘extremism’ in the public consciousness in ways that can justify limiting freedom of speech.

Fake far-right social media accounts have apparently been promoted by several western governments. 

According to Breitbart, citing an investigation by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung:

Hundreds of fake social media accounts espousing far-right ideology on platforms such as Twitter, Telegram, Instagram and Gettr are being operated by the German Federal State, a report by a major mainstream newspaper in the country has revealed. According to the report by Süddeutsche Zeitung … Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been operating hundreds of accounts espousing extremist views for the purpose of infiltrating groups of interest to government officials.

The report also suggested that “the federal office has … been paying civil servants to operate accounts posing as radicals on the Left and Right as well as the likes of radical Islamic extremists, anti-vaccination activists.”

Writes John Cody:

Hundreds of the radical Nazis and right-wing extremists online are actually German domestic intelligence agents, and many of them may be responsible for ‘inciting hatred’ and even violence … Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) argues that these accounts are needed to effectively monitor the extreme Right, but critics say that they may also be promoting and actively encouraging radicalism, according to a report from German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung … According to research by the newspaper, the authority has invested heavily in ‘virtual agents’ since 2019, which it finances with taxpayers’ money. 

We may also cite cases suggesting a similar modus operandi on the part of U.S. intelligence services. The above-referenced Breitbart article draws an explicit parallel with the United States: 

Federal agencies in the United States [are also] frequently accused of promoting hardline ideologies as part of [an] attempt at infiltrating radical groups … it was found that FBI informants played an active role in a plot surrounding the planned kidnapping of Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic Party governor for Michigan. According to the Buzzfeed investigation into the alleged terror plot, informants working under the direction of the federal body played an active role ‘in nearly every aspect of the alleged plot, starting with its inception.’

Even apart from the inherent danger in promoting something describable as ‘right-wing extremism,’ (presumably understood principally as hostility to specific groups of people), the above seems to go well beyond what might conceivably be necessary to infiltrate and monitor “groups of interest to government officials.” 

In addition, while genuine extremists do exist—some of whom will be violent—artificially raising the prominence of far-right extremism in the public consciousness can, quite straightforwardly, be used to intensify that process whereby any sign of distress at mass migration, for example, is stigmatized, justifying limits on speech deemed politically incorrect.