{"id":38227,"date":"2017-03-16T15:30:19","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T22:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=38227"},"modified":"2017-03-16T15:30:19","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T22:30:19","slug":"online-hate-infiltrates-social-media-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/online-hate-infiltrates-social-media-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"How online hate infiltrates social media and politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hatekeyboard\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In late February, the headline of a news commentary website that receives more than 2.8 million monthly visitors announced, \u201cJews Destroy Another One of Their Own Graveyards to Blame Trump<\/a>.\u201d The story, inspired by the recent desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia<\/a>, was the seething fantasy of an anti-Semitic website known as the Daily Stormer. With only a headline, this site can achieve something no hate group could have accomplished 20 years ago: It can connect with a massive audience.<\/p>\n

\"Hate<\/a>

Hate speech moves rapidly from the fringe to the mainstream. Screenshot of DailyStormer.com<\/p><\/div>
\nHate speech moves rapidly from the fringe to the mainstream. Screenshot of DailyStormer.com<\/a>, CC BY-ND<\/a><\/span>To whom, and how many, this latest conspiracy may travel is, in part, the story of \u201cfake news<\/a>,\u201d the phenomenon in which biased propaganda is disseminated as if it were objective journalism in an attempt to corrupt public opinion. My recent book on digital hate culture, \u201cFanaticism, Racism, and Rage Online<\/a>,\u201d explores the online underworld from which many of those false narratives originate. I investigate the lesser-known source of all this hate-laced \u201cnews\u201d simmering in our public debates, helping to cultivate a distorted reality for its ardent believers and a fractured polity for the rest of us.<\/p>\n

Looking at the most-visited websites of what were once diminished movements<\/a> \u2013 white supremacists, xenophobic militants and Holocaust deniers, to name a few \u2013 reveals a much-revitalized online culture. For example, according to SimilarWeb analytics<\/a>, Stormfront, the longest-standing white supremacist site, receives more than two million monthly visitors. That is half a million more than the NAACP<\/a>, GLAAD<\/a>, the Anti-Defamation League<\/a> and National Council of La Raza<\/a> websites, combined.<\/p>\n

But size and scope alone do not account for the unprecedented reach that these websites have found in the digital age. Their ascent mirrors the improbable rise of former KKK Imperial Wizard David Duke<\/a>, who shed his Klan robes for an eventual seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives. Today\u2019s radical right is also remaking its profile, swapping swastikas and white-power rock for political blogs and news forums. The trappings may have changed, but the bigotry remains.<\/p>\n

Looking the part<\/strong><\/p>\n

The American Renaissance hate site opens with a quote from Thomas Jefferson and an offering of timely news articles. These include borrowed headlines from The New York Times about looming deportation policies and Associated Press stories on Texas voter ID laws. But there is an ever-present fixation on nationality and race, as in original commentaries like \u201cHow I Saw the Light About Race.\u201d Weaving together real news with racist views, the site stealthily positions the fringe ideas as aligned with the mainstream.<\/p>\n

On the Occidental Observer (tagline: \u201cWhite Identity, Interests, and Culture\u201d), white nationalist contributors and a few former scholars speculate on forum topics like \u201cThe Holocaust Industry,\u201d \u201cJewish Influence\u201d and the \u201cRacialization of America.\u201d The Observer looks much like the homepage of any policy think tank, except for the conspiracy-driving anti-Semitic subtexts.<\/p>\n

For online hate groups like this, perception is reality. The common emphasis on news and politics reflects a shift in the messages racist groups promote. Many no longer focus on white supremacy, but rather take the more accessible position of white victimization.<\/p>\n

The headlines emanating from websites like the Daily Stormer allow contemporary racists to imagine they are now a minority race under siege. These narratives include an imagined onslaught of illegal immigrants, a fear of black-on-white crime<\/a>, an equal rights movement that somehow infringes on religious freedom and a Jewish globalist machine<\/a> supposedly behind it all.<\/p>\n

Hate rhetoric repackaged as politics and housed in websites that look just like any other online blog can attract, or even persuade, more moderate ideologues to wade into extremist waters. This \u201cuser-friendly\u201d hate community is joining forces in a way that could never happen in the offline world. Thanks in part to this connectedness, these poisoned narratives are now spreading well beyond racist websites.<\/p>\n

How it travels<\/strong><\/p>\n

The speed with which online hate travels is breathtaking. Two days after that Daily Stormer story on \u201cJews Destroying Their Own Graveyards,\u201d David Duke discussed \u201cthe likelihood that the recent string of \u2018anti-Semitic hate incidents\u2019 are in fact false flag hoaxes<\/a>\u201d on his podcast.<\/p>\n