A report monitoring hatred and Antisemitism on the Net states that “Every aspect of the Internet is taken advantage of by all types of extremists in order to spread – once again – hatred, to humiliate the ‘enemy’, to raise funds, and – since September 11th – to recruit and train terrorists”. Although social network websites make an effort to remove hatred groups, “it is not always enough”.
The Wiesenthal Center’s report claims that Hatred groups and militants are increasingly using social websites, such as Facebook, Myspace and YouTube, in order to spread propaganda and recruit members.
The report indicates a 25% rise in the number of “problematic” groups in social network websites on the Net, during the course of last year. The report examined “10,000 problematic websites, social network groups, blogs, chat rooms, video clips and hatred-games on the Internet, which encourage racial violence, anti-Semitism, homophobia, hate-promoting music and terror”.
The Center argues that “Every aspect of the Internet is taken advantage of by all types of extremists in order to spread – once again – hatred, to humiliate the ‘enemy’, to raise funds, and – since September 11th – to recruit and train terrorists”.
The Wiesenthal Center – named after the famous Nazi hunter – has been following Internet use by extremists for over a decade. The Center claims that the emergence of social networks, such as Facebook, has accelerated the dissemination of racist world-views over the past few years. The Center’s officials met with Facebook’s representatives, who promised to remove websites violating their terms of use, although they claimed that it is hard to pace up with such a large number of surfers. Rabbi Abraham Cooper from the Center says that “Facebook makes the biggest effort so far, but we know already that doing your best is not always enough to solve the problem”. He gave an example of a “YouTube” video that the company keeps removing, but the surfer uploads it over and over again under new user names. He claims that he signed up for the website 64 times using different names.
According to the report, the extremist surfers also set up their own social networks, including a website called “the new Saxonia”, which is described as “a social network for people of European origin”. This website was created by an American neo-Nazi organization called “the National Socialist Movement”.
