This article explores a digital tool developed in order to better understand extremist sub-cultures: “ExtremeBB is structured textual dataset containing nearly 44M posts made by more than 300K registered members on 12 different online extremist forums, enabling both qualitative and quantitative large-scale analyses of historical trends going back two decades. It enables us to trace the evolution of different strands of extremist ideology; to measure levels of toxicity while exploring and developing the tools to do so better; to track the relationship between online subcultures and external political movements such as MAGA (the importance of which was seen in the attack on the US Capitol in January 2021); and to explore links with misogyny and violence, including radicalization and recruitment.” (p. 1). The article also performs a qualitative content analysis of selected publications. From the combination of methods it was possible to establish a correlation between elements of the manosphere and the far right. However, the article presents a more nuanced analysis because of the complexity and wide variety of elements that are not presented as violent, hence the conclusion: “Simply taking down websites will not work to lessen the spread of extreme ideologies in the longer term [...]. Policymakers should thus adopt a combination of approaches: observing discussions, intervening with psycho-social support, and occasionally removing the most extreme and unlawful content” (p. 8).
2021