Federico Borgonovo and Silvano R. Lucini
Editor’s Note: This article is republished from the Italian Team for Security, Terroristic Issues, and Managing Emergencies (ITSTIME), a research centre of the Department of Sociology of the Catholic University of Sacred Heart in Milan.
On New Year’s Eve 2022, supremacist slogans were projected on the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam via a portable laser projector: “Happy White 2023”, “White Lives Matter” and “Black Pete Did Nothing Wrong”. This action was claimed by the Dutch and German sections of the group White Lives Matter on their Telegram channel. The equipment used consists of a smartphone and a laser projector. Although not exactly cheap, the projector is very easy to use and the effect it produces is highly scenic (as can be seen in the picture at the top of this article).
Similar operations were observed in 2020 in France, where Generation Identitarie (then in full swing, now disbanded) had projected anti-Islam slogans on the walls of the Grand Mosque in Lyon.
As of October 2022, this modus operandi was also observed in the US, in particular by neo-Nazi groups such as NatSoc Florida and Goyim Defense League. The peculiarity of the American phenomenon lies in its ability to place the operation itself—the projection of neo-Nazi slogans and symbols with a laser projector—at the center of the community, to the point of becoming its symbol. Channels and chats on Telegram use identifiers such as Laserwaffen or Lasernazi in order to attract militants and activate funding campaigns. Within the chat rooms on Telegram, artwork is posted characterized by an interesting mixture of cyber-punk subculture and fascination with the weapons of Nazi Germany.
Finally, there was an observed predisposition of such groups to turn material posted by journalists, researchers, or ordinary citizens reporting on the effects of operations into propaganda, highlighting their strong desire to capitalize on it in the media. Telegram chats have seen videos and photos denouncing the projection of swastikas on buildings, re-elaborated, and posted in the form of neo-Nazi banners. Twitter is being used, particularly for claiming and amplifying the effects in the comments section.
The phenomenon, although dating back to 2020, is in its infancy but is already accelerating. Neo-Nazi (young) users from Western countries are populating Telegram channels and chats in which they exchange information, expertise, and opinions.
The applications of this technique are innumerable. It is easy to put into practice, and above all, it is widely available to a digital ecosystem populated by different extremists, among which are jihadist groups. On the one hand, we have a new, flashy and “low-intensity” form of media operation, and on the other, a set of interconnected extremist digital ecosystems that members can tap into.
Looking at our own country, the extreme Right digital ecosystem incorporates Italian organisations. White Lives Matter itself has its own Italian section that could learn and emulate what has been done in the Netherlands. So far, the laser propaganda operations have been conducted solely by the extreme Right, but how long will it be before a supporter of violent jihad takes the initiative?
