Across Europe, we witness increasing extreme right-wing voting tendencies. Although these actors rely heavily on online media, to date no study has empirically investigated if and how the use of the Internet and in particular social media relates to extreme right-wing voting. Relying on representative panel data, we explore this link. The findings show a positive connection between extreme right-wing voting intention and increased political online discussion especially for Facebook users. By contrast, this link does not hold for political online information consumption.

Dr. Helena Wenninger is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Information Systems at the Department of Management Science at the Lancaster University Management School.