Digital Fascism and Digital Capitalism

Abstract

What is digital fascism? What is digital capitalism? How are they related? This article theorises digital fascism as a contemporary form of right-wing authoritarianism rooted in capitalism and reorganised through digital infrastructures. The analysis builds on the Frankfurt School’s analysis of authoritarianism. Fascism is seen as a terroristic, anti-democratic mode of organisation. It is based on the cult of leadership, nationalism, the friend/enemy-scheme, and militant patriarchy. Crises of capitalism can catalyse fascism. The paper advances a dialectical framework: There is a dialectic of fascist practices (cognition, communication, co-production) and digital structures (platforms, algorithms, datafication). Such practices and structures recursively produce one another. The tripleC dynamic enables user-generated hate, post-truth propaganda, algorithmic targeting, cyberattacks, and digitally mediated violence. Ten hypotheses describe the shift from broadcast propaganda to digital authoritarianism and digital fascism. Using a political economy approach, the article demonstrates how digital, financial, and fossil/transport capital fund and legitimise authoritarianism. The result is an authoritarian digital capitalism that can turn into digital fascism. The conclusion argues for a digital democracy that counters the fusion of big business and big power in the digital age.

Acknowledgement: This paper was first published in the journal Philosophy & Social Criticism. Using a CC-BY license, the original article has been reproduced in tripleC: https://doi.org/10.1177/01914537261434922