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Simon Wiesenthal Center Study: Hate Goes Viral on Social Networks

by Tina Kells | May 13, 2009 at 03:14 pm

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A study released May 13, 2009 reveals a shocking trend on the social web. According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center study there has been a 25% increase in hate on social networking sites, so called viral hate, and that the trend is on the rise.

Looking at 10,000 problematic websites; from blogs, to chatrooms, networking sites to online games, the proliferation of hate online is startling. Websites, games and social groups that promote sexism, racial violence, anti-semitism, holocaust denial, terrorism and homophobia are growing at an exponential rate.

Facebook, the number one social networking site on the web, recently vowed to crack down on the problem by removing viral hate from its pages, but only in countries where such behavior is against the law. Specifically, Facebook vowed to remove groups that deny the Nazi holocaust in countries where holocaust denial is a crime.

However, Facebook is not the only game in town, and racist groups have joined the social web world with dedicated services of their own. Case in point, New Saxon, a social networking site that welcomes only people of "European descent" and is owned and operated by a US based Neo-Nazi group called the National Socialist Movement.

Can hate on the social web be contained ever be? Just how bad will the issue become? What, if anything, can be done to keep this ugly side of human nature away from all things Web 2.0? The Simon Wiesenthal Center study suggests that as in the real world, education on the social web is the only way to effectively combat hate.

"Every aspect of the Internet is being used by extremists of every ilk to repackage old hatred, demean the 'Enemy,' to raise funds and since 9/11, recruit and train Jihadist terrorists," the Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a statement.

The Jewish human rights group named after the renowned Nazi hunter has been monitoring the use of the Internet by extremists for over a decade. It said the rise of social networking sites such as Facebook had accelerated the spread of racist and bigoted views in recent years.

It said Facebook officials had met with its experts and pledged to remove sites that violate its terms of usage, "but with over 200 million users, online bigots have to date outpaced efforts to remove them."

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Blue Crush

at 18:39 on May 13th, 2009

You can track and monitor internet hate crime at StopRacism.ca.

They contain a wealth of information for victims of racism or hate crimes, with both Canadian and International links of where to go and how to report this.

Roy C

at 21:29 on May 13th, 2009

The question is: why the hate?

Character structure creates a need to hate.

Art de Rivers

at 21:30 on May 13th, 2009

I recall the sentiments of Eric Fried the late poet who lost family in Auschwitz when he was in Germany and he protected the rights of a neo nazi to engage in argument and spell out his poisonous views because Eric Fried felt it was better they were expressed in the open than be secreted away .

Was he right ?

On balance I believe yes because poisonous views need airing and challenging and the repression of them does not make for strong democracy but often a paranoid one .

What happened to Jewish people was inexpressibly criminal and bureaucratically insane and must be challenged - let us also recall the first people who were singled out for gassing were people with mental illness or learning difficulties . And, let us demand too that people should not become so marginalised in camps of squalor and have their lands taken that they feel their only recourse is to blow themselves up because they hate their neighbour who causes their pain ..

Let him who is without sin cast the first stone .

Yes , lets create openess as away of challenging darkness with clarity .