Professor Ico Maly writes in 2021:
Metapolitics 2.0 is deeply woven into the new media system. The impact and the influence of The Golden One, and thus his role in the distribution of far right ideology, cannot be reduced to his content alone. We have to understand it in relation to online persona and thus also the digital and algorithmic environment in which he produces his voice. The management of visibility, as well as avoiding non-visibility, is a constant worry for all actors in this media system. Making yourself visible is thus critical for all ideological projects. Over The Golden One’s long social media career he has proven himself a master of this game. Further he has remained fully integrated on all major digital platforms (YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook) for almost a decade. He used the affordances of each platform and adopted classic influencer techniques to grow an audience, keep that audience, and build a community around him.
Key to any contemporary metapolitical project is thus being and staying integrated in each platform’s culture and adjusting to community rules. It is their integration in the new media ecology that allows them to become so influential. Since the end of 2020, the Golden One has struggled to remain integrated. His personal Instagram and Facebook accounts have been deleted. He is now using his existing mainstream accounts to move his audience to new platforms like GAB and Telegram. In a desperate attempt to remain on YouTube, he has announced that he will stop posting political videos there. His attempts to reinstate his Instagram and maintain his YouTube account show us just how important mainstream digital media are for the metapolitical project.
