Companies are targeting hate speech
Tech world reacts after the tragedy in Charlottesville
Silicon Valley appears ready to pull the plug on hate speech.
In response to a deadly rally in Charlottesville involving white supremacists, tech companies have started cracking down on groups and people believed to be spreading hate speech on their services.
Here’s a breakdown of the tech companies that have responded:
AIRBNB
The accommodations service booted users who were planning to stay at listings and hold afterparties while in town for the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. In a statement, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the removed users violated the company’s Community Commitment, its nondiscrimination policy. “The violence, racism and hatred demonstrated by NeoNazis, the alt-right and white supremacists should have no place in this world,” said Chesky.
APPLE
The company denied access to its Apple Pay service to sites spreading hate speech. Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed in an email to employees the company will donate $2 million to anti-hate groups. “Hate is a cancer, and left unchecked it destroys everything in its path. Its scars last generations,” wrote Cook.
CLOUDFLARE
Following action from Google and GoDaddy, the service protecting sites from denial-of-service attacks dumped neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer. Cloudflare was accused of being Nazi sympathizers for not acting quickly enough to drop the site. “We find the content disgusting, vile and revolting,” said Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince. “But we are not social critics — we’re technologists.”
DISCORD
The popular messaging app created for video game players said it shut down the altright.com server and several accounts associated with events in Charlottesville. “We will continue to take action against white supremacy, Nazi ideology and all forms of hate,” it said.
The social network removed pages connected to several white supremacist groups, including White Nationalists United. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said the company would work to remove any threats of physical harm. “We won’t always be perfect, but you have my commitment that we’ll keep working to make Facebook a place where everyone can feel safe.”
GODADDY
The domain registrar was the first to dump The Daily Stormer after the site published an article about Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old woman killed in Charlottesville.
GoDaddy said recent content crossed the line by encouraging violence.
“GoDaddy does not condone content that advocates expressions of hate, racism, bigotry,” said Ben Butler, director of GoDaddy’s digital crimes unit.
Already mired in a confrontation with “alt-right” supporters over the dismissal of an engineer who distributed a controversial manifesto, the tech giant dropped The Daily Stormer from its domain registration service hours after the site was dumped by GoDaddy.
PAYPAL
The payments service appears to have cut off access to the National Policy Institute, run by white nationalist Richard Spencer, according to a PayPal link on NPI’s website. Also, PayPal shared a blog post condemning use of its service to fund hate groups. “Regardless of the individual or organization in question, we work to ensure that our services are not used to accept payments or donations for activities that promote hate, violence or racial intolerance,” wrote Franz Paasche, PayPal’s senior vice president of corporate affairs and communications.
SPOTIFY
The streaming music giant confirmed it would pull “hate music” from its library.
Spotify said it will yank music “that favors hatred or incites violence against race, religion, sexuality” as soon as it is “brought to our attention.”
SQUARESPACE
After a Change.org petition launched urging the domain registrar to “stop hosting white supremacists,” the company said it was dropping several sites. “In light of recent events, we have made the decision to remove a group of sites from our platform,” said Squarespace. “We have given the site owners 48 hours’ notice.”
Add one more service no longer welcoming The Daily Stormer, after its Twitter accounts were suspended. “The Twitter Rules prohibit violent threats harassment, hateful conduct, and multiple account abuse, and we will take action on accounts violating those policies,” said the company in a statement.