Trolling the Library: The digital threat to the democratic mission of public libraries

In Sweden, the growing influence of the radical right have turned cultural institutions into political symbols in an emerging ‘culture war’ (Harding, 2021). Carlsson, Hanell & Hansson (2022) show how digital forums and social media play a significant part in orchestrating the ideologically laden conflicts and confrontations that public libraries are currently facing. This prompts an investigation of the digital environments where supporters of radical right-wing ideas interact, share thoughts, construct collective identities, and coordinate actions towards libraries. In this explorative pilot study, we use selected methods on a small dataset to test viable methods and approaches.
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