The Simon Wiesenthal Center Releases Digital Terrorism and Hate 2018 Report
From the Simon Wiesenthal Center:
The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s interactive report, Digital Terrorism and Hate 2018, focuses on what has become a critical global frontier in the marketing of hate and terrorism. The troubling increase in sophistication that extremists are demonstrating in spreading their messages online and the need for a coalition of corporations, parents, educators, non-profit organizations, and governments that can empower young people to mobilize in fighting hate was highlighted during the launch of the 2018 report in New York.
The accompanying Digital Terrorism and Hate ‘Report Card’ evaluates the efforts of owerful online platforms in removing hate and terror-related postings and recognizing the strides that some of the larger platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, have made working with the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Together, Facebook and Twitter have removed hundreds of thousands of posts.
Critical Findings From The Report:
- Emergence of Alt-Tech – social media tools of post-millennial/millennial white supremacists and other extremists who are highly skilled content creators and social media marketers
- Leveraging of platforms by extremists, including members of Generation Z, such as vk.com, that are less aggressive in confronting extreme content
- Building new outlets by the Alt-Tech which include “goyfundme,” and “hatreon”
- Mainstreaming of hate targeting younger generations with language that doesn’t sound hateful on the surface, but denigrates groups and often attempts to rewrite history
- Mixing and matching public platforms with off-the-shelf encryption by an online terrorists and bigots alike
Direct to Complete Report
Filed under: Associations and Organizations, News
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.