Abstract

MARQUES, Marcelo de Souza; NEMER, David; SOUZA, Aknaton Toczek  and  DA SILVEIRA, Felipe Lazzari. Technopolitics and Extremist Configurations in the Age of Digital Platforms. rev.estud.soc. [online]. 2025, n.94, pp.3-22.  Epub Oct 20, 2025. ISSN 0123-885X.  https://doi.org/10.7440/res94.2025.01.

As the opening article of the dossier “Extremist Configurations in Latin America in the Era of Digital Platforms,” this paper offers a theoretical-analytical reflection on the reconfiguration of contemporary extremism, considering the datafication of life, platformization, and algorithmic governmentality within the recent populist context. It argues that growing political-populist polarization and the resulting radicalization of discourses are intensified by the massive use of digital platforms, which reshape processes of subjectivation and directly influence political processes and societal mobilizations. Methodologically, the study employs an interdisciplinary theoretical framework to discuss how algorithmic dynamics promote engagement through affects of exclusion, fostering the expansion of extremist discourses. Building on this review and recent political developments, the article explores three key hypotheses: the instrumentalization of anti-establishment criticism, political technicism, and the construction of radical polarization as a mobilization strategy. As a theoretical-analytical proposition, the discussion underscores the central role of major technology corporations in shaping public opinion, structuring digital communication spaces that promote antagonisms and reinforce polarized interaction patterns. Furthermore, it shows that neoliberal governmentality, sustained by these technologies, cultivates a competitive rationality that fuels the rise of populist discourses and strengthens extremist ideologies. The originality of this reflection lies in its effort to articulate diverse theories and concepts to explain the role of digital platforms in contemporary political dynamics, particularly in the reconfiguration of extremism. By demonstrating the interdependence between technopolitics and extremisms, this article contributes to debates on the challenges of democracy in the digital age and in the current populist moment, stressing the need for a critical approach to address the social impacts of algorithmic infrastructures.

Keywords : algorithmic governmentality; platformization; political extremism; populism; technopolitics.

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