Watch the performance and panel discussion Generative AI, Weaponised Language & Political Shadow Campaign.
Recorded at Disruption Network Lab‘s conference Shadows of Illiberalism: Resisting the Radical Right, which took place in Berlin from 13 – 15 June 2025.

Lecture Performance: Ask Me for Those Unborn Promises That May Seem Unlikely to Happen in the Natural · #2 2025 – by Donatella Della Ratta.

Panel: Donatella Della Ratta (Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies, John Cabot University. IT), Míriam Juan-Torres (Head of Research, Democracy & Belonging Program, UC Berkeley, ES), Amber Macintyre (Research Lead, Tactical Tech, SCOT/UK/DE). Moderated by Tina Lee (Editor-in-Chief, Unbias the News, US/DE).

In recent years, the consolidation of far-right movements within institutional frameworks across both Europe and the United States has marked a significant shift in the political landscape. This evolution has been accompanied by the articulation of political agendas rooted in rhetorics of violence — discourses that intensify social polarisation, incite hatred, and reinforce structures of discrimination. What emerges is a new paradigm of performative transgression, one that is both disseminated and magnified through the algorithmic logic of social media and the infrastructure of automated technologies and generative AI.

According to Míriam Juan-Torres, we are in what scholars call the third wave of autocratisation, marked by leaders who rise to power by mustering popular support and then legitimise authoritarian practices under the guise of defending democracy from perceived “Others.”

Once in power, countries seem to transform into competitive autocracies, where seemingly certain democratic institutions coexist with targeting of opponents and marginalised communities and creating an uneven playing field. In the talk “The Paradox of Authoritarian Populist Politics: Appropriating Democracy, Advancing Authoritarianism through Othering”, Míriam Juan-Torres will look at the specific approach of authoritarian populism, which combines tactics from both the authoritarian and populist playbooks, and how gender specifically is leveraged to advance six strategies to further the authoritarian populist project.

In the talk “Far-Right Campaigns: Shadowy Networks or Institutionalised Practices?” Amber Macintyre will examine what institutionalised practices are involved behind the scenes in creating far-right language and imagery through an analysis of a database of political firms and observations of centre-right campaign practitioners. Far-right digital campaigns have been understood as “shadowy” yet recently it has become clear that recognised institutions – especially technology firms – have shown their support for far-right ideals. Furthermore, the language and image within far-right campaigns is often based on analysis that technology firms support including data collection and analysis.

Following her lecture-performance Ask Me for Those Unborn Promises That May Seem Unlikely to Happen in the Natural #2 (2025), Donatella Della Ratta will join the panel discussion to explore how speculative generative AI technologies extend the reach of violence into the realm of the not-yet-realised. Her contribution interrogates the destabilisation of conventional notions of fact and evidence, particularly within contested political and mediated landscapes—from the ongoing war in Palestine to the socio-political dynamics of Trump-era America.