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WHITE EXTREMISTS ARE having doors to the internet slammed on efforts to promote violent and bigoted agendas.
Internet titans that have contorted to balance free speech with odious content were standing firm this week against being used to glorify killing in the name of race or eliminating those who oppose that kind of ideology.
A consistent message from Silicon Valley firms contacted by AFP was that advocating violence and bigotry violated clearly-outlined terms of service, resulting in accounts being closed or content being removed.
Just a day after a woman protesting racism was killed at a white supremacist rally, major website hosting service GoDaddy cancelled the domain name of Daily Stormer, which helped organise the event in Charlottesville to protest the removal of a Confederate statue.
The ‘Unite the Right’ rally turned tragic when a suspected Nazi sympathiser, James Fields, plowed his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters, leaving a woman dead and 19 others injured.
“We generally do not take action on complaints that would constitute censorship of content and that represents the exercise of freedom of speech and expression on the Internet,” GoDaddy digital crimes unit director Ben Butler said in an email statement.
In our determination, especially given the tragic events in Charlottesville, Dailystormer.com crossed the line and encouraged and promoted violence.
Daily Stormer switched the website to Google Domains. The registration was quickly cancelled for “violating our terms of service,” a Google spokesperson told AFP.
The neo-Nazi website also apparently came under attack by hacker group Anonymous and retreated to a ‘dark’ portion of the internet where websites lurk out of sight from online search engines.
Leading social network Facebook and famously free-wheeling online conversation forum Reddit have also taken action against accounts or content in the aftermath of the deadly Charlottesville rally.
Physical Removal tossed
Reddit banned a ‘Physical Removal’ community advocating that Democrats be “removed from society” in the real world. Posts at Physical Removal had mocked the woman killed at the rally.
“We strive to be a welcoming, open platform for all by trusting our users to maintain an environment that cultivates genuine conversation and adheres to our content policy,” a Reddit spokesperson told AFP.
We have banned /r/Physical_Removal due to violations of the terms of our content policy.
Facebook has a policy of removing material that attacks people based on race or that praises violent acts or hate groups.
Facebook removed shared posts of a Daily Stormer article denigrating the killed anti-racism demonstrator, unless they had captions condemning the content.
The social network applied the same rules used to remove content posted by terrorist groups.
A ‘Unite the Right’ event page was removed from Facebook over the weekend after it became clear that rather than simply promoting an event it was promoting real-world harm.
Other accounts or pages removed from Facebook or its photo-message service Instagram included Right Wing Death Squad; Genuine Donald Trump, and Radical Agenda: Common Sense Extremism.”
Facebook and Instagram personal profiles of vocal white supremacist Christopher Cantwell have also been removed.
Not playing
This week a free Discord chat service that is popular with gamers shut down accounts evidently being used for violent white nationalist agendas instead of video game play.
Online chat rooms openly praised Adolph Hitler and Nazi genocide, and were used to help organise the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, according to a New York Times report.
Internet fund-raising and payment platforms have declined to be used by white-supremacists seeking to solicit funds for Fields, who is in jail facing charges including murder.
Online financial transactions service PayPal has a longstanding rule against being used for physical harm or racial intolerance.
“We work to ensure that our services are not used to accept payments or donations for activities that promote hate, violence or racial intolerance,” PayPal senior vice president of corporate affairs Franz Paasche said in a blog post.
This includes organisations that advocate racist views, such as the KKK, white supremacist groups or Nazi groups.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump found himself in the eye of a political storm this week after his remarks on the unrest in Charlottesville.
His assessment that there was “blame on both sides” for the deadly melee sparked a rare comment on current affairs from his two Republican predecessors, George Bush and George W Bush, who called on Americans to “reject racial bigotry… in all its forms”.
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Is there a special queue for celebrities and public figures?
@John O Reilly: if there is it would be interesting to see the about of jumping the que that would go on
@John O Reilly: It’s only for those that cant handle it. The vast majority are probably fine.
addiction is a disease. would you stop giving treatment to cancer patients cuz it didn’t work the first time?
@Stiles: my response is @wolfgang
@Stiles: Difference is: Anyone can get cancer!
It’s mostly not a choice. You can increase the risk of getting it (smoking, drinking, etc.), but these people choose to take the risk – mostly.
You’re not getting addicted because you try cocaine, heroine or whatever ones.
Cocaine is not that cheap, even in Ireland (according to Google).
So, why should feel sorry for someone who failed the program twice or more?
The problem is today, EVERYTHING has been classed as an addiction, because something happens in your brain.
You’re fat = food addiction, You gamble your money away = gambling addiction. Even sex: You’re cheating = sex addiction.
The “addiction” label on everything has become a free for all and the taxpayer has to pick up the tap.
@Stiles: Billionaires are the most deadly addicts of all
@Wolfgang Bonow: good rant Wolfgang.. hopefully you feel better now… but you’re wrong.. WHO recognises addiction as a disease.. its typically trauma that makes a person become an addict.. its always people who are far removed from the issue that make statements like yours.. I’ll bet none of your immediate loved ones have suffered from it. addiction isn’t a choice.. also you say the tax payer has to pick up the tab.. if you don’t help these people it’s likely the taxpayer will be more out of pocket with other issues created.. plus lots of addicts are taxpayers.. there’s a lot of misconcieved problems in your comment.. but work away…
@Stiles: the WHO had a re think on that a number of years ago actually
@Stiles: I don’t think it was a rant. Having cancer or an addiction are NOT the same thing. I hope we can agree at least on this part?
I also agree somewhat, that “addiction is not a choice”.
If I have 10 cans of beer every night = I have a problem.
If I need cocaine to do whatever = I have a problem.
I can get the beer in any shop, But: I have to look to get cocaine.
There’s no chance you can get “by accident” or convenience to get into cocaine.
My point was: You have have children classified as “gaming addicted”.
That’s in 99.9% just an excuse for bad parenting.
A lot of “addicted”, the ones who have a job normal live, use the addiction as an excuse.
Let’s be blunt: Anyone out there who likes a pint or eating or anything else, has today 100′s of excuses why he might be addicted and get it confirmed, because NOBODY can look into your head.
@mainmsam: no they didn’t.. just Google it..
@Wolfgang Bonow: you’re making unrelated points.. I’m talking about people being addicted to substances.. your suggestion with regards ten cans of beer being available in every shop but you have to look to get cocaine shows your lack of knowledge on the topic.. getting coke is as easy as getting beer, often easier, because dealers don’t go by off licence hours, plus they can deliver, plus they don’t ask for id, plus they give it to you on tick.. You’re not knowledgeable about this subject so I’d ask you to take this into account before being as opinionated as you are on it. addiction most often occurs after a traumatic life event and use a substance to ease their suffering before eventually becoming reliant on that substance. it’s actually a problem with the persons brain. research it..
@Stiles: don’t need to buddy, I’m 21 years sober I know they changed their thinking on it
“In total, 45% of the 4,084 cases involving cocaine were cases where the person was receiving treatment for a cocaine addiction for the first time”.
How many were on the 2nd or 3rd?
Maybe it’s time to size down the support a bit?
@Wolfgang Bonow: Always interested in how numbers are presented in a media context. trying to figure out the actual amounts (which should be shown) is always a maths problem, anytime that’s the case, people have a right to be highly suspect.
The drug of the insecure. Thats why its so prevelent
Delighted the welfare cuts are causing huge stress amongUkrainian chancers
Minimum unit pricing on alcohol is working nicely, could go further perhaps and ban it totally
“Cocaine, all around my brain”.
have your say