Online presence of militant, hate groups grow
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 16 March 2010, 23:57 IST   |    29 Comments
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Online presence of militant, hate groups grow
Bangalore: The use of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube by militant and hate groups grew by almost 20 percent in the past year. According to a report by Simon Wiesenthal Center found more than 11,500 social networks, websites, forums and blogs promoting violence, anti-Semitism, homophobia, hate music and "terrorism," an increase from 10,000 last year. The greatest increase of digital hate has emerged from Facebook and YouTube have seen a proliferation of extremist use, with 30 percent of new postings on Facebook alone - with the greatest increase coming from overseas, particularly Europe and the Middle East. Facebook officials have met with the SWC and pledged to remove sites that violate their terms of usage. But with over 200 million users, online bigots have to date outpaced efforts to remove them. Some sites have thousands of friends, thus enabling the message of hate to spread virally. These social networking sites have become so prevalent that some 'traditional' hate groups have begun to develop their own versions, such as New Saxon, "a Social Networking site for people of European descent" produced by a traditional American Neo-Nazi group (National Socialist Movement). Another hate site, Stormfront (generally considered the first online hate site, starting in 1995) uses their Facebook page to connect thousands of visitors to their main website. The UK considers Stormfront's Founder Don Black so dangerous that he was recently among 16 extremists barred from entering Britain. The continued presence of games that perpetuate stereotypes and celebrate violence - aimed at young people - have begun to seep into the mainstream, where they are either hosted or reviewed on regular gaming sites.

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