Internet closes racist, violent sites
White extremist accounts forced to Dark Net
White extremists are having doors to the Internet slammed on their 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 canceled the domain name of Daily Stormer, which helped organize the event in Charlottesville to protest the removal of a Confederate statue.
The “Unite the Right” rally turned tragic when suspected Nazi sympathizer, James Fields, plowed his car into a crowd of anti- racism protesters, leaving a woman dead and 19 injured.
“We generally do not take action on complaints that would constitute censorship of content and that represents the ex- ercise of freedom of speech and expression on the Internet,” GoDaddy digital crimes unit director Ben Butler said in an e- mail 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 canceled 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 the Dark Net.
Leading social network Facebook and free- wheeling online conversation forum Reddit have also taken action against accounts. Reddit banned a “Physical Removal” community advocating that Democrats be “removed from society” in the real world.
“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.