The political geographies of AI and the manosphere

In summer 2024, cities and towns across England erupted in riots after the murder of three girls. Prominent among the rioters were white men, some of them visibly affiliated with far-right groups, who were acting upon a rumour spread on social media that the murderer was a Muslim asylum seeker. In this intervention, we suggest that AI has a direct relationship to the racist and misogynistic behaviour witnessed in the riots and other recent instances of violence. Political geographers have noted for years that the world is increasingly digitally configured, our space and lives increasingly ‘coded’. This transformation has coalesced with a reactionary and revanchist masculinity, witnessed across many global contexts and embedded in the politics of the resurgent far-right.