Archetypes and Homophilic Avatars: New Approaches to Studying Far-Right Facebook Practice.

Background: The concept of archetypes is often deployed to understand people engaged with far-right or right-wing online content. However, this can lead to essentializing assumptions that overlook how users are mobilized to participate with these politics. Analysis: This article theorizes how users are mobilized to perform far-right politics by conceptualizing them as embodying homophilic avatars, treating online practice as performative and homophily as an online and offline force. Conclusion and implications: Through qualitative analysis on Facebook, the homophilic avatar shows how users are driven to engage with far-right or right-wing content via political performativity and homophily, as opposed to psychological tendencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]