Accelerationists, eco-fascists, neo-luddites, and various other subgroups of environmental extremists have been using Instagram to spread their ideology, share information about means and methods of violence, and promote terrorist tactics. Despite the strict content regulations on the platform, this content has been allowed to proliferate and metastasize unchecked.
The result is a growing international and interconnected network of extremists who are using Instagram as their primary means of communication and content dissemination. These accounts vary in size and in ideology but share a unified fetishization of violence and promotion of revolutionary activities.
This has allowed content, specifically manifestos, magazines, and instructions for violent action to spread quickly across these network nodes, reaching large audiences on a global scale. Accounts share original content from other accounts that they follow, pushing this content further across the social media space and vastly increasing the impact that the content can have. Thus, Instagram plays a critical role in allowing this extremist eco-accelerationist content to spread and thrive online.
Instagram's community guidelines specifically prohibit posts that "encourage violence or attack anyone based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, disabilities, or diseases." Furthermore, content that Instagram considers to constitute "threats of physical harm as well as threats of theft, vandalism, and other financial harm" are specifically singled out. However, many of these accounts freely distribute content that promotes violence against property and infrastructure without consequence. These posts spread across the network unchecked, and its growing reach means that there is an ever-increasing risk of real-world violence as a result.
MEMRI DTTM graph represent comparative size of eco-accelerationist Instagram accounts by follower count
The channels are tightly interconnected, and the network of accelerationists, anarcho-primitivists, and eco-extremists is small and self-contained. While there are "core" nodes within this network – channels with large followings that hold influence within the broader movement and have many followers that are not mutual – as well as peripheral accounts which primarily follow the bigger accounts and do not disseminate much original content, the vast majority of accounts within this sphere follow each other, cross-post content, and promote each other. This allows the network to sustain and grow as a unit.
A network map showing interconnections between accelerationist and eco-extremist Instagram reports
The following report highlights some of the major accounts disseminating eco-fascist and eco-accelerationist content on Instagram, and will analyze the network of these accounts and how content spreads across the platform.
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