The Politics of Gray Data: Digital Methods, Intimate Proximity, and Research Ethics for Work on the “Alt-Right”

Abstract

This article addresses how gray data, or research data that have their provenance in the gray area between found texts and the products of participants, is complicated by issues inherent to studying the “alt-right,” especially in social justice–oriented and digital methods work. Although ethical guidelines and recommendations have not reached a consensus on issues such as requiring consent for doing work on gray data in general, fruitful contextual discussions that take in differing worldviews and political goals can help triangulate an approach to making decisions for specific projects. Furthermore, the overt hostility of “alt-right” groups to researchers is also considered as a complicating factor, one that extends the meaning of “ethical responsibility” to also include responsibilities to additional parties, such as those you are citing, research assistants, and family members. The article concludes with a consideration of the intimate proximities created by social justice–oriented and digital methods research on the “alt-right,” and a set of guiding questions for doing such work that, while not quite a set of best practices, are offered as signposts to help researchers navigate what are ultimately highly singular and emergent ethical problematics.