Extreme speech

Abstract

Extreme speech is a critical conceptual framework that aims to uncover vitriolic online cultures through comparative and ethnographic excavations of digital practices. It is not one more new definition or a term replaceable with extremist speech. Rather, it is a conceptual framework developed to foreground historical awareness, critical deconstruction of existing categories, and a grounded understanding of evolving practices in online communities, in ways to holistically analyze the contours and consequences of contemporary digital hate cultures. This framework suggests that the close contextualization of proximate contexts - of media affordances in use or situated speech cultures - should accompany deep contextualization, which accounts for grave historical continuities and technopolitical formations unfolding on a planetary scale. Through such elaborate forays into everyday practices and deeper histories, extreme speech theory proposes to nuance normative and regulatory efforts to classify and isolate hate speech and disinformation.