The rise in far-right adherents and apparent increase in visits by speakers keen to peddle white supremacist, anti-muslim, and/or mysoginistic presentations has prompted Western Sydney University’s Rachel Sharples and colleagues to write a paper on how to disrupt them.
The authors note that the far right movements had been largely overlooked in Australia until ASIO issued warnings about the rising threat they posed, triggering a growing body of academic work on the topic.
The researchers analysed five case studies of tours by far-right speakers, and emphasised the importance of legal avenues such as the migration act to restrict hate speech.
However, legal remedies to prevent far right speakers from entering or speaking in Australia were not always effective, so the authors brainstormed other best practice approaches to disruption and found that, ”online platform restrictions, grassroots activism, and strong opposition from political and civic leaders were … effective countermeasures.”
