Extremism on Social Media: Nordic Perspectives is the latest special issue of Nordicom Review, edited by Line Nybro Petersen and Mikkel Bækby Johansen. The issue explores how social media are changing how extremist ideas emerge, spread, and are understood across the Nordic countries.
“We wanted to understand what this landscape looks like in the Nordic countries. We don’t see the same levels of extremism here as in other parts of Europe, but that doesn’t mean these dynamics do not exist. The role of social media has changed how these narratives spread, and how these communities are able to coordinate and manifest online”, says Line.
Central themes
Across the contributions, a central focus is how extremism takes shape on social media in the Nordic countries, including so-called hybrid forms of extremism.
“It’s not only the ideology that is hybridised, but also the aesthetics and the practices. Something may look like a fitness influencer or a health influencer, but then it’s mixed with more extreme ideas or conspiracy narratives”, says Line.
Another key theme is how social media platforms shape these dynamics. Influencers, online communities, and shared content all play a role in how ideas spread and gain attention.
The research also points to similarities across the Nordic countries. Even in a region often considered stable and high in trust, global online trends influence how extremism appears and develops locally.
“There’s a lot of transferability. The trends we see in one Nordic country are often visible in others as well”, Line notes.
Articles in the issue
Several contributions take a closer look at how extremism appears on different platforms and in different Nordic contexts.
One study examines far-right YouTubers in Sweden during the Covid-19 pandemic and how they combine political messages with influencer-style content. The research shows how these actors build communities, promote their views, and even earn money through their content, blending activism with entertainment and self-branding.
“What we are seeing is a hybridisation of extremism, where influencer culture, marketing techniques, and political propaganda merge. Far-right actors increasingly operate like influencers and entrepreneurs, using platform culture to normalise extremist narratives in ways that are harder to detect, categorise, and counter”, says Tina Askanius, one of the authors of the article The alternative influence network (AIN) of far-right YouTubers in Sweden: Connectivity and hybridisation of online extremism during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Another contribution focuses on how ideas from the so-called manosphere spread to a Norwegian audience through social media. The study looks at how a Norwegian influencer engages with content linked to Andrew Tate, sometimes in an ironic or humorous way. Even without fully endorsing these views, this kind of content can help bring extreme ideas into mainstream online culture.
“The study shows that extremist and misogynistic ideas can also travel through mainstream entertainment. When influencers act as ‘ironic spectators’, they can introduce harmful ideas without fully endorsing them, which makes these ideas easier to normalise and harder to challenge”, says Fredrik Langeland, author of the article The spread of manosphere ideology to a Norwegian audience through ironic spectatorship: A qualitative analysis of influencer engagement with Andrew Tate.