Weeks after feds said 'Boogaloo' group members used Facebook to plan the murder of a federal agent, Facebook says they have removed 220 Facebook Groups and 95 Instagram accounts associated with the extremist movement. Read the rest
• Founder to leave Reddit, saying resignation can be ‘act of leadership’ • Reddit promises to update content moderation policies to “explicitly address hate” within weeks
Earlier today, we told you that Reddit's Alexis Ohanian was resigning from the Reddit board, asked the company to fill his seat with a Black candidate, and said he'd donate further proceeds from Reddit to anti-racism causes beginning with a $1M pledge to Colin Kaepernick's “Know Your Rights Camp.”
Now, Reddit has responded.
Reddit community demanding change in hate speech policy. Exciting times.https://t.co/2dt5JB4avE
— Alexis Ohanian Sr. 🚀 (@alexisohanian) June 5, 2020
Reports Hannah Murphy at the Financial Times:
In a lengthy statement later on Friday, Steve Huffman, Reddit’s chief executive, said that the company would “honour” the request by Mr Ohanian that his successor be a black candidate.
He added the company would update its content moderation policies to “explicitly address hate”, adding that the timeline would be “weeks, not months” if moderators of individual forums engage in the process.
“[Our] current policy lists only what you cannot do, articulates none of the values behind the rules, and does not explicitly take a stance on hate or racism,” he said. “We will update our content policy to include a vision for Reddit and its communities to aspire to, a statement on hate, the context for the rules, and a principle that Reddit isn’t to be used as a weapon.”
Read more: Reddit pledges to appoint black director after Ohanian quits [ft.com] Read the rest
“Not only is the terror threat diverse, it’s unrelenting." --FBI director Chris Wray.
The FBI has elevated the risk from neo-Nazis in America to the same level with which it regards ISIS. Read the rest
“Officials are not currently calling the act a hate crime, referring to it instead as an act of vandalism and tagging.”
“At least five” spray-painted swastikas were discovered on Tuesday morning in a residential area in Wrightwood, said the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department on Wednesday. Read the rest
The popular fried chicken sandwich fast food chain Chick-fil-A has long been targeted by pro-human-rights groups for aligning with hate and homophobia. Read the rest
Not long ago, United demanded a black passenger remove her official Marvel "Black Panther" hat because it made someone uncomfortable. This weekend, United refused to even challenge a white passenger wearing a "Rope. Tree. Journalist" shirt, no matter who it made uncomfortable.
Jessica Sidman on Twitter:
My brother is on a @united flight from LA to Boston and saw this guy boarding with a shirt that reads “Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some assembly required.”
He told the flight attendant and she asked what he wanted her to do.
He told her he didn’t want one passenger threatening to kill other passengers.
He told her @United should do the right thing. She went to talk to the captain.
Then security pulled my brother off the plane. He talked to a security official.
The security guy said they couldn’t do anything just because it was offensive.
My brother said it wasn’t offensive, it was THREATENING.
They offered to put my brother on another flight. They didnt say anything to the guy with the shirt.
Then, in a statement to Forbes,
Read the restSidman’s brother said he chose to bring the matter to United’s attention because, “I did not think one passenger should be allowed to threaten other passengers (be it on a shirt, on a sign or verbally) and that United should do the right thing.
“I didn’t want this to be about United appeasing me, a single customer,” he wrote.” I wanted the airline I flew not to sanction the threatening of murder of any group.”
They demonetized Stephen Crowder for "egregious actions."
Then they said he can re-monetize if he stops selling those SOCIALISM IS FOR FAGS t-shirts.
Canada-based hate personality Steven Crowder won't be able to earn more of Google's money from his YouTube channel after a “continued review” found a “pattern of egregious actions” contrary to YouTube Partner Program policies, YouTube said to one of Crowder's bullying victims today. And then, within an hour or so, they walked it all back. Read the rest
A group of metalheads playing kazoos drowned out the hate-spreading 'Westboro Baptist Church' cult at the Virginia state capitol. I am proud of my home town. Read the rest
On Wednesday, the TV network France 3 was forced to cut off a live Facebook broadcast from a desecrated Jewish cemetery in eastern France when trolls swarmed the feed and filled it with anti-Semitic hate comments. Read the rest
Changing the headline after public outcry, The New York Times once again backflips as they excuse hate.
hey @nytimes this is some racist bs. IT'S BLACKFACE. BLACKFACE. jesus christ, this is why we have these problems in the first place! call RACISM RACISM. pic.twitter.com/KboYvqKbpf
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) February 6, 2019
Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars rantathon channel have been turfed out of virtually every major platform due to his love of violent rhetoric, racial hatred and general bigotry. Welcome to Roku, Alex!
Roku may have given itself a brand safety issue. The streaming service has added Infowars, the live show hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, as a channel. Jones was in the news on Jan. 11 for losing a legal battle to Sandy Hook shooting victims’ families, forcing his company to turn over documents.
On Jan. 14, Roku users tweeted their concerns at the company. One tweet from @DanielMadison78 asked, “Hey @Roku, what’s with you adding Infowars to your platform?” In a now-deleted tweet, Roku’s support account replied with a link to the channel.
Roku is built-in to many television sets nowadays—for people who don't like racist conspiracy theories, it has just become a nearly perfect wedding of convenience and very unexpected consequences.
UPDATE: Following the backlash, they removed them.
After the InfoWars channel became available, we heard from concerned parties and have determined that the channel should be removed from our platform. Deletion from the channel store and platform has begun and will be completed shortly.
— Roku (@Roku) January 16, 2019
It's becoming more difficult by the day to recognize the nations we live in as the same ones we grew up in. Men and women, terrified of their lot in life becoming smaller than it is, fueled by the hateful rhetoric of opportunistic shit-heel politicians, look to minorities and the less fortunate to blame for problems that we as a society have all had a hand in. Skapegoating and the hate that comes with it has reemerged with a startling momentum. Even nations once known for their tolerance have proven susceptible to it its vile, slobbering charms.
From The CBC:
The number of police-reported hate crimes reached an all-time high in 2017, largely driven by incidents targeting Muslim, Jewish and black people, according to Statistics Canada data released Thursday.
The federal agency said hate crimes have been steadily climbing since 2014, but shot up by some 47 per cent 2017, the last year for which data was collected. In total, Canadian police forces reported 2,073 hate crimes – the most since 2009, when data became available.
The largest number of hate crimes on record, since Canadians started to keep records of it. Graffiti on the walls of places of worship. Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia haunting our children's schools and out places of business. People are dying for fear of the other.
The CBC is quick to point out that such crimes "...account for 0.1 per cent of the more than 1.9 million non-traffic crimes reported by Canadian police services in 2017." Read the rest
On October 24, Gregory Bush was said to have opened fire at a Kroger grocery store in Jeffersontown, Kentucky on 69-year-old Maurice Stallard, shooting him in the back of the head. 67-year-old Vickie Lee Jones? She was shot by Bush as well. Both victims were black. According to NPR, it was announced this week that the racist shit stain has been justly indicted on hate crimes and fire arms charges by a federal grand jury.
From NPR:
The 51-year-old is charged with "shooting and killing two victims because of their race and color; and for shooting at a third man because of his race and color," according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman in the Western District of Kentucky.
Minutes before the ambush Bush was also captured on surveillance video trying to enter the First Baptist Church — a predominantly African-American congregation — during a service but locked doors prevented him from entering.
So, in addition to being a bigot, Bush was also a coward: he decided to take out his hate on a group of unsuspecting congregants who'd come together to worship their God. Locked doors? Better go and shoot an old man in the back of the head and an unsuspecting, unarmed woman as she walks across a parking lot. But, you know, not a white dude, because "whites don't shoot whites."
I'm so sick of reading and writing about this sort of shit. Justice cannot come swiftly enough.
Image: by Blogtrepreneur - Legal Gavel, CC BY 2.0 Read the rest
In news that will not surprise anyone who is Black, Latinx, Jewish, Muslim, queer, or a member of any other group targeted by hateful idiots, hate crimes in America are way up under Trump. Says who? FBI. Read the rest
Facebook claims it is trying to limit fake news and hate speech. Facebook is not.
An investigative journalist who went undercover as a Facebook moderator in the UK says the company lets pages from far-right fringe groups “exceed deletion threshold,” and that those pages are “subject to different treatment in the same category as pages belonging to governments and news organizations.” The accusation is a damning one, undermining Facebook’s claims that it is actively trying to cut down on fake news, propaganda, hate speech, and other harmful content that may have significant real-world impact.
The undercover journalist detailed his findings in a new documentary titled Inside Facebook: Secrets of the Social Network, that just aired on the UK’s Channel 4. ... The documentary insinuates that Facebook takes a hands-off approach to such content, including blatantly false stories parading as truth, because it engages users for longer and drives up advertising revenue.
It sounds like the Trump-loving right is the advertising bonanza of the decade! Social networks are where advertisers can get to that audience without anyone else being able to tell who is marketing to whom. Read the rest
Anti-Muslim hate personality John Guandolo was speaking just a couple of weeks ago about his desire to arrest Democratic and GOP leadership, then execute people. Mr. Guandolo's 'training workshops' on the dangers of jihad have some popularity among some police officers in the U.S., as evidenced by past speaking engagements with various police departments. Mr. Guandolo is now reviving that speaking tour. Read the rest
