Discourse, Power and Society Brexit, Facebook, Transnational Right Wing Populism

Hall identifies the critical conjuncture between Brexit and Facebook that enabled transnational right-wing populism to engage a new audience. White and Right victimhood motivated individuals to use Facebook as a means of harnessing a sense of political control around Brexit. In Brexit, Facebook, and Transnational Right-Wing Populism, Natalie-Anne Hall takes Brexit as a case study for examining the critical consequences of the diffusion of transnational right-wing populist politics on social media. Through multi-method, qualitative research with avidly engaged pro-Brexit Facebook users in the tumultuous post-referendum period, Hall explores the effects of this participation on the on- and offline experiences of these individuals and on their interpretation of events surrounding Brexit. The book examines the socio-political and technological opportunities for this engagement with right-wing populist politics and the consequences of this engagement for transnational White victimhood and what Hall coins “Right victimhood.” Hall demonstrates how the “mainstream” political issue of Brexit acted as a catalyst for engagement with more extreme forms of right-wing politics via Facebook.