The alt-right movement in the United States was influenced by Russian fascist ideology and helped enable the spread of disinformation, particularly through social media. It promoted conspiracy theories and extremism that undermined liberal values and stoked societal divisions. While the alt-right is no longer the primary source of disinformation, it established online platforms and narratives that were built upon by QAnon to mobilize millions of Americans with dangerous misinformation.

1. JRN 450 –
Disinformation
Alt-Right
• The Alt-Right
movement has been
eclipsed by QAnon in
the spread of
disinformation.
• But it provides a key
link to enabling QAnon
to establish itself.

2. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• The Alt-Right is a “neo-fascist white supremacist movement that is
involved in violent extremism and shows signs of engagement in
extensive disinformation.” (Bevensee)
•

3. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• There are Russian connections, of course.
• “Utilizing the geopolitical notions of the Eurasian “Heartland” and
Atlantic “Rimland” initially conceived by British geographer,
Halford Mackinder, (Russian national Alexsandr) Dugin layered
fascist myths of the Aryan “Sonnenmensch” over an idea of a
united Eurasia to promote a global Russian empire from Dublin to
Vladivostok and southerly to the Indian Ocean.” (Dugin 1997)

4. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• Dugin understood the importance of the U.S. in his project.
• The weapon of choice to disable the U.S. would be disinformation, Dugin
wrote, to pit left against right.

5. JRN 450 – Disinformation -
Alt-Right
• “It is particularly important,
moreover, to introduce
geopolitical disorder into
domestic American reality,
encouraging all kinds of
separatism, a variety of ethnic,
social and racial conflicts,
actively supporting all dissident
movements: extremists, racists
and sectarian groupings,
destabilizing the domestic
process in the USA.“ (Dugin
1997)

6. JRN 450 – Disinformation -
Alt-Right
• Russian media under Putin
such as Sputnik and Russia
Today became a “hub for
right and left-wing
political activists to
express their dissent
against the US, and
particularly against
liberalism.“

7. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones hosted Dugin on his Infowars
YouTube channel, and he appeared on Dugin’s far-right Tsargrad
television channel, creating a link between Russian disinformation
and American personalities.
• The American alt-right took root in 2008, using newly emerging
social media platforms Facebook and Twitter and traditional blogs
to spread disinformation that matched the goals Dugin set out.

8. JRN 450 – Disinformation -
Alt-Right
• Richard Spencer is another
key link between the
Russian ideology and
American alt-right
disinformation campaigns.
• Spencer edited The
American Conservative
magazine.

9. JRN 450 – Disinformation -
Alt-Right
• In 2017, Spencer organized
the Unite the Right rally in
Charlottesville, Virginia.

10. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• The development of Breitbart News later run by Steve Bannon and
other sites such as Veterans Today, 21st Century Wire, ZeroHedge,
GlobalResearch.ca, MintPressNews, and The Duran played critical
roles in serving as information platforms that alt-right adherents
could use to carry information through social media posts
featuring links to articles.
• This created a “media bubble” through which disinformation could
be amplified.

11. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• The alt-right spread apocalyptic “of societal collapse, biblical
rapture, or race war” through multiple platforms.
• President Obama was a particular target when he served 2009-
2017, with memes and other disinformation artifacts claiming he
would seize guns, build FEMA camps to hold right-wing adherents
and turn over the government to China.
• The imageboard 4chan became a critical gateway to
disinformation.

12. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• The key goal remained political destabilization, so the alt-right
developed an impulse to label many liberal positions as based on
hoaxes: climate change, mass shooting and so forth.
• It used these themes as part of its disinformation campaigns,
enlisting millions of Americans through social media.
• The hoaxes became an alternate reality.

13. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• The alt-right promoted a “blood-and-soil” strategy to lead to a
white ethnostate, and it gathered force with militia groups such as
the The Oathkeepers, the Three Percenters and the Proud Boys,
all armed and ready to display their firepower in open-carry states
during rallies.

14. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• QAnon emerged from the swamps of 4chan and other sites in 2017.
• The conspiracy theories it promoted merged with the existing
alternate reality of the alt-right but soon consumed the alt-right
itself.
• It became the central organizing metaphor for millions of
Americans, all infected with smoldering disinformation that led to
armed insurrection, achieving Dugin’s goal.