Cas Mudde was included on a list of of academics with Twitter accounts linked to Antifa messaging.
The list was based a data analysis by Dr. Eoin Lenihan.
Mudde is a professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia.
Cas Mudde
“On Twitter, Mudde has been a reliable defender of Antifa for several years,” Lenihan said. “He criticises those he deems “anti-antifascist”, he downplays Antifa violence and seems to rely on Antifa-connected journalists."
While Lenihan said Mudde, an expert on the far right, uses the platform to promote Antifa the tweets from Mudde’s account were more muted than others on the list.
“Mudde claims that Antifa is not an organisation. This is a favoured argument of Antifa themselves who like to conceal and downplay their activities,” Lenihan said.
The technique used by Lenihan to determine who to place on the list was a search of all Twitter bios including the word “professor” and cross-searching their Tweet’s for Antifa content.
“In recent years there have been several high-profile cases of university staff with direct links to Antifa who have not only brought their extremist views into the classroom but who have been defended by their institutions for doing so,” Lenihan said in the Medium article outing the lecturers.
Notable examples of academics with links to Antifa include include Mark Bray, the author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook”, who has advocated for violent protest.
Bray was disavowed by the Dartmouth’s president in 2017.
Lenihan said the analysis does not mean any of those identified are affiliated with violent rioting and looting throughout the nation.
“(T)here are several reasons that an academic may have close social-media ties with an extremist group and close ties does not, immediately, indicate any wrongdoing,” Lenihan said.
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