Impacts of radical right groups’ movements across social media platforms – a case study of changes to Britain First’s visual strategy in its removal from Facebook to Gab

This article examines the visual strategy of the U.K. radical right group Britain First as they were removed from Facebook and migrated to a less regulated platform – Gab. Data was collected over two four month periods in 2017 and 2018. Using methods from discourse analysis, the study identifies visual changes in terms of content, including a shift on Gab toward promoting the group's inner core members and expanding “othering” practices to Islam broadly. Changes in visual style were also identified, notably from the routine posting of esthetically polished images, to a reliance on unedited images. The article concludes with policy recommendations for governments and tech companies regarding the removal of visual radical right online content.