In 1995, only one hate website existed on the Net. Now, according to a report by the Wiesenthal Center’s Digital Hate and Terrorism Project, there are over 10,000 websites, social networking groups, portals, blogs, chat rooms, videos and hate games, that promote racial violence, anti-Semitism, homophobia, hate music and terrorism. [Source].
In many parts of the world the internet has become the prime method of communication. This major shift has lead to unprecedented connectivity between groups and people. It is our most powerful tool for sharing information, but it can also allow people with more extreme and hateful viewpoints to meet and exchange rhetoric on popular social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.
Testing the limits of freedom of speech, controversy surrounds whether Google and web 2.0 tools should have more rigorous policies restricting content that promotes hate and violence. It is easier than ever for hate groups to virally recruit others to help fuel stereotypes that celebrate violence and segregation. While these openly racist, oppressive views are generally not tolerated in our society social networking tools have enabled overtly racist individuals, who would have otherwise remained on the periphery of society, to form hate-centered communities and discussion forums online. Hate of culture, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, values and beliefs different than their own.
National Socialist Life, Aryan Guard, FARC, Hamas, Hezbollah, Faloja Forum, Support Taliban- thirty percent of new hate postings are on Facebook alone, which has an estimated 200 million users worldwide. The greatest increase has come overseas particularly from the Middle East and Europe. [Source].
With the spread of racist philosophies, from Holocaust denial sites, which claim that the Holocaust was a hoax arising out of a Jewish conspiracy to advance the interest of Jews at the expense of other peoples; Zionist propaganda, Columbine shooting “fans”, to neo-Nazi Internet forums- when does is it come time to call on the Thought Police? Should the Google index mediate and monitor what is said, or does this infringe on people’s basic rights and freedoms?
Online bigotry is a tough challenge. Even when offenders get kicked off a site or websites get shut down, all it takes is a new profile under a different identity.
Facebook recently disabled the ‘I Hate Muslims in Oz’ because it contained an “explicit statement of hate” while openly hateful sites such as Stormfront.org, which promotes “white nationalism”, continue to have leading presence on the web. The site is frequently updated and links to a number of white nationalist and white racist websites.
Led by former Ku Klux Klan leader Don Black, Stormfront was the first major hate site on the Internet. 2,000 new members joined the day after Obama was elected President, even temporarily going offline due to the overwhelming amount of activity.
Bigotry seems to be alive and well in our society. The most often targeted groups on the Internet include Jews, Catholics, Muslims, Hindus, gays, women and immigrants.[Source]. The less people know about the world around them, the easier it is not to empathize. Raising awareness against hate and violence could be a step forward in changing some people’s minds, but whether all of humanity will ever be ready to universally accept each other’s differences is quite another story.
Though hate sites are no doubt infiltrating the Internet in a serious way, the debate is whether censorship can help stop the spreading of hateful ideologies or if fundamentally, every individual should have a space where they can express their opinions. There are hundreds of thousands of groups and websites that are aiming to improve relationships with other cultures, identities, political views and religions.
For now, there is no one hundred percent effective way for stopping online bigots from creating pages and profiles on public social websites. Though currently the Internet may act as an enabler to spread extremist views, its capability of bringing people together could one day be the ultimate force working to diminish hate groups significantly.
These folks need to stop the hate! Put them hater blockers on folks!
RT
http://www.anon-tools.tk
Uhhm….OK. So what are you going to do about “National Socialist Life, Aryan Guard, FARC, Hamas, Hezbollah, Faloja Forum, etc.” Look I am no lawyer, and do not work for the FBI so I would be the last person to tell you exactly what to do, but if you are motivated then I say, ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK. Look for a group of people who spy on these groups and expose them. You have to be smart though… you have to infiltrate, and then expose, and all the while do NOT expose who you are. Pretty tricky huh! Doing a DOS is no good because the law will work on their side. But if you infiltrate, get the personal data on them and can verify that it is them who are sending the hate, and expose them…that should do the trick. And look at all the targets…MILLIONS.
By the way. Not everyone who says something negative about Obama is a “bad guy.” The main stream media did NOT really dig into Obama. I could go on and on and on, but just taking one item, his religion, the media gave him a pass for his hateful and racist religion, which he attended for twenty years. Believe me, unless you are brain dead, Reverend Wright is a racist. If you really want to learn about black liberation theology I suggest you read about where it comes from, which is Nicaragua. Read about Marxism. Then read CONE, who created the religion. Some of his videos and texts are available at YouTube, Harvard lectures he gave and at Amazon.com. The media in the USA is owned and operated by 100% by corporations with global ambitions and they are SOCIALISTS. They are never going to tell you anything negative about Obama.
You only need to look at the comments attached to most Youtube videos to see that casual racist remarks are rife all over the internet. I try to take some solace in the idea that most of the people writing these comments are 14-year old males.
Human beings are racist by nature. The sooner you accept this, the sooner racism will go away.
While I do not support racism or bigotry in any way, all of those people have a -RIGHT- to feel the way they do, and to come together via whatever channel is available to them in order to express their beliefs/feelings and discuss them.
It would be IMMORAL for anyone to tell them they can’t, or to try and put a stop to this. If your going to stop a anti-gay website, then must you also not have to stop the pro-gay websites, because its the same concept.
we dont need any regulations on the internet, if you don’t want to go to those sites/groups then don’t. if you do then go be a hater. doesnt matter to me.
All my hate and prejudices I learned at church. Unfortunately I also learned it from my parents at home. One day when I came home from kindergarten and asked what is a NIGGER(a term I heard in class from other white friends), and why do people act different towards people of different color?
I knew at 5 years old, that what I was learning at home and in church was NOT a good thing (being racist or prejudice because of someone being born differently).
I knew that we were not put on this Earth to hate each other and categorize people for the way they were born.
People who hate on others, are insecure and need to feel higher/better than others.
Yes they have a right to have an opinion… but understanding that accepting and understanding that God created us all differently, not to hate, but to be an individual.
The reason some people go to church because they need to feel apart of a community that is better than others.
Life is better when you have love in your heart daily. Its sad that so many people go through life growing up and being raised in a hateful upbringing. If the people of the world learned to LOVE a little more, we all would benefit.
In 1995, the internet was just getting started. Most Americans didn’t have home computers (and easy access to the internet) until around 2000. I’d be a lot more interested in how many hate sites there were in 2000 compared to now than in a year when most people didn’t use the internet yet.
It’s called free speech dummies.
Free speech,
I hate hate groups.
hmm..free speech vs disgust for these people. I think that they should have the right to say whatever they want – so long as it’s civil and not threatening to anyone, etc. Free speech means that anyone can say anything they want, regardless of how idiotic and ignorant it is.
The same patterns emerge with widespread adoption of any new technology/medium – whether radio, telephone, TV, computer, internet, mobile-phone, wireless, etc. There is usually an adaptation period while people adjust psychologically to the basic fact that any new medium or technology is merely that – a new (and generally more effective) way to communicate *whatever we choose to communicate*. During this period people often get strung out on how the new medium/technology-du-jour is making communication better or worse, because they are distracted from the fact that it is still essentially *humans communicating*. Opportunists often try to use this as an excuse to divert responsibility by hiding behind various forms of tech-jargon. In the end people come to see that basic freedoms should always be defended, but so too should the basic rules of accountability/responsibility. To quote George Bernard Shaw – “Freedom means responsibility, that’s why most people dread it”. Effectively everywhere on the planet the various laws defending Free Speech always include some form of exemption for obvious Hate Speech. A section from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech states – “In many countries, deliberate use of hate speech is a criminal offense prohibited under incitement to hatred legislation”. I personally feel we should just think “as in life, so on the ‘net”. For example, just as I demand a right to privacy in my own home (not to enter without a legitimate search-warrant), so I also demand a right to privacy in my own digital communications (allow me to strong-encrypt my email without having to explain to anyone “why”). Equally, as I wouldn’t consider it fair for someone to scream racist abuse in a public town-square without being expected to “face the music”, I wouldn’t consider it fair for someone to irresponsibly flame an entire demographic in a public web-forum without some way of being held accountable. It’s just called basic mutual respect. It is the only thing which makes modern society any more than a glorified high-tech jungle… regardless of the “tech”.
Define Hate. Hate, like love, is completely subjective. To sensor and/or sanction any postings on the internet will be damn tricky business. And like any other well meaning intention, to take action against “some” would probably only serve to bog down the internet in general with protocol and subsequent real world litigation which would get us “all” into MORE government regulation, which we should want to avoid at all costs.
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship or limitation. Being a huge proponent of this right, I am all for free speech and no censoring. If you dont like the message, then move on and refuse to participate. Giving your attention to “hate” or anything else only serves to perpetuate it further and isnt that the agenda? In this case, the road less traveled is best.
As far as “haters” go, you will never rid the world of them but to infringe on First Amendment Rights is to step off of the edge with no wings to fly.
Racism in its simplest form -hating people because they belong to a certain group- has always existed since the beginning of humankind. We will never fully get rid of it because there will always be some group that people look down on. We can only fight the specific instances as they occur. That is what we must do.
isn’t it amazing the methods “haters” use to spread their venom… there are many people in this world i don’t like and many nations and organizations which i find detestable… i walk away from them… it is sad that, especially on the internet, technology is being used to divide when it should be used to reconcile… there are times when knowledge of these things makes my heart quite heavy… the heart of man can be a deep, dark cave and is a difficult place to alter unfortuantely
It is hard to go against our long tradition of free speech,even when the words are filled with hatred,and anger.Members of these groups,at least here in the U.S. are monitored fairly to very closely by federal,state,and local law enforcement,as well as organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center,who have successfully sued more than one large hate group into insolvency,and thus the dust bin of history.
No terrorist or hate driven movement has ever succeeded in winning any permanent victory,though they have won battles.The Soviet Union,The Third Reich,and many others have taken tens of millions of lives,ruined or tainted countless many more,but in the end,they either no longer exist or won’t last forever.
Free speech gives,and allows us the opportunity to expose,resist,and confront them.They falter,and crumble easily before the truth,and those who will not tolerate them. Web site owners need to be as vigilant as anyone else to remove the professional haters from their sites.There is a quantitative,and qualitative difference between angry,or worse bigoted opinions,and people or groups who existence,emotionally or financially depends on spreading hatred.There is no need for a knee jerk reaction to this,and call in the ‘thought police’.
Strategies will be thought of,and developed to combat,and remove these people from our social dialogue.Laws,and lawsuits,or criminal trials,and vigilance will keep them small,and ineffective,though always potentially dangerous to our society.
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Just wanted to tell you all know how much I appreciate your postings guys.
Found you though google!
Great post! I’ll subscribe right now wth my feedreader software!
списки кандидатов, выдвигаемые партиями политическими и избирательными объединениями (блоками) на выборах в представительные органы, проводимые по пропорциональной избирательной системе.
Строительный элемент, соединяющий два узла каркаса, фермы и т. п. Расроложен сообразно диагонали замкнутого контура и обеспечивает жесткость конструкции.
I am not at all sure humans are by nature racist. In the US the earliest laws against blacks and whites marrying were enacted because they were marrying. If they had not been marrying there would have been no need for a law. The native people, the indentured serfs, black and white, and slaves cooperated. The ruling elites did not want to have to control a united group of black and white lower class people.
Whether we are speaking of the Nazi’s, Klu Klux Klan, Skin Heads or Fred Phelps all of these have one thing in common. Hate!! They hate because people are different than they are. Hate groups base this hatred on skin color or where people were born but they do not only hate based on the issue of race. The real reason these people hate is because of there own ignorance. Perhaps one person from a single race wronged them and these weak minded people find it easier to hate the entire race while others perhaps seek safety in numbers. People hate for every reason imaginable and some that are not fathomable to normal people.
at the very least, these social networking sites prevent physical violence from happening. I still consider it safer there than walking down a racist’s street where physical and verbal abuse are bound to happen.
not that I encourage racist remarks from any social networking sites. I really think it is our duty to report them, or flag them down if we are offended with their ways since there is no existing governing body as of the moment. if they don’t know the basic netiquette then they don’t belong to any web community.
thanks !! very helpful post!
rH3uYcBX
Прикольная заметка. Добавил в закладки. Не в каждом блоге сейчас встретишь столько интересных и полезных мыслей, которые можно применить на деле. Но понадобится еще время, чтобы осмыслить информацию. Даже сейчас, когда после прочтения текста Вашего поста, в тот момент, когда пишу комментарий, я думаю, о тех вещах, смысл которых мне теперь совсем по другому видится. Эх, что за день сегодня – полезный день.