Group assignment -Q3

No3. The Internet is a place when hate groups come to inhabit. Discuss with relevant examples.

   Hate group is an organization whose primary purpose is to promote animosity, hostility or violence against persons belonging to a different race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability or any other designated sector which differs from that of the member of the organization. Hate group frequently involves in harassment and defamation. After the Internet has come to this world, hate groups started committing hate crimes and publishing hate speech through the Internet. However, their presence is growing faster lately due to the social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and so on. 

   According to a report from the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), groups that advocate violence, terrorism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, racist and other forms of intolerance grew by 20 percent in the year 2009. There are now more than 11,500 social networks, websites, forums, and blogs that focus on spreading those groups’ philosophy, recruiting new members, and instructing people especially young people on how to hurt others. (Jacqui Cheng, 2010) Hate groups preferably aim at young people is because they are always unsophisticated, naive and easily convinced by those hate groups’ philosophy. In addition，young people are lack of experience or facts at hand to confront the propaganda that spread by the hate groups. Besides, young people have a frequency to often use the Internet. Therefore, the hate groups would like to inhabit in the Internet to advertise the cause of intolerance to their targeted group. (Serg Born, 2010)

   On other hand，the reason why the hate groups chose to inhabit online is because of the anonymity in the cyber world. It is difficult for the police to find out the people who commit the hate crime activities because police can only track the position of the people who commit hate crime through their IP address. But what if the people who commit hate crime are using the computer in the cyber café? Although there might be CCTV in the particular cyber café, however it is impossible for the police to track the criminals. Therefore, the anonymity online had provided a very secure environment for the hate crimes to inhabit. 

   In America, the hate groups such as Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, Creativity Movement, Hammerskins, Little Shell Pembina Band, Volksfront and White Revolution are all using the Internet to promote their philosophy which is based on white supremacist ideology. In the year 1995, the first major hate site, Stormfront was created by the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, Don Black. The first page of Stormfront has been designed with a label of “White Pride World Wide” which racial and political leanings are apparently shown. Stormfront includes essay, stories, email, forums, and upcoming events, achieves and links to more than 60 other groups. Stormfront presents itself as engaged in a struggle for unity, identifying culture, speech and free association as its core concerns, though members of Stormfront are especially passionate about racial purity. (Sandee Richardson, 1998)

   In the year 1998, an interview for the alternative weekly newspaper Miami New Times, the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, Don Black mentioned that the Internet is a boon for them because before the Internet has been created, Ku Klux Klan can only reach people with pamphlets or holding rallies with no more than a few hundred people but now they can reach potentially millions through the Internet.(Sandee Richardson, 1998) In this interview, it shows that Internet is a very efficient tool to help transmitting message to a large audience. 

   Besides, nowadays the social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are a place where those hate groups can easily spread their philosophy or post the video of their rally. There are a lot of hate groups established in Facebook for example a group called Israel which is already removed due to the terms of Facebook rules and regulations. However, owing to the worldwide connection of the Internet, it is difficult to control the activities that are conducted by the hate groups.

(681 words)