American Alt-Right Leaves Facebook for Russian Site VKontakte

[DonViejo]

Source: The Daily Beast



Kicked off the U.S. social-media giants, white supremacists are finding a home on Russia’s VKontakte, where they are finding fellow travelers and fewer restrictions.

Katie Zavadski
KATIE ZAVADSKI
11.03.17 5:00 AM ET

After a series of purges on Facebook and Twitter, white supremacists are seeking refuge on Russian social media.

The migration began as early as 2016, when groups like the United Aryan Front flocked to VKontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook. But it has amplified in recent months after the white-supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, said Keegan Hankes, an analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Many white nationalists and organizations found themselves banned from U.S. social-media sites after the rallies, which climaxed when a white supremacist killed counterprotester Heather Heyer with his car.

The shift to Russian social media shows just how difficult it is to contain radical groups on social-networking sites. Social networks face the same challenge with many forms of extremism: Jihadi groups, for example, turned to encrypted networks like Telegram after being thrown off Facebook and Twitter. Even there, their channels are repeatedly shut down, only to resurface. And white supremacists, too, are re-emerging on less restrictive and newer social networks. “After they got kicked off these platforms, they’re finding a new place to live,” Hankes told The Daily Beast. “You even saw some people self-deporting from these websites, going to places where their content would be safer.”

Last weekend, Alabama white nationalist Chad Bagwell told a reporter from The Tennessean that he’d heard about Saturday’s White Lives Matter rally in Tennessee on VKontakte, in an example of the migration.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/american-alt-right-leaves-facebook-for-russian-site-vkontakte

[FM123]

1. Wow, that's some article.

Interesting to find that these white supremacist crazies have had such an ongoing fetishization for Russia long before all this Trumpy/Putin madness

[Historic NY]

2. So why not block ISP from access in the Us

[DK504]

6. lol....nice.

[Historic NY]

7. I don't consider it censorship,

since its proven that it is a National Security & Public Saftey problem

[xor]

8. Block US IPs from access websites deemed harmful?

Similar to China's Great Firewall? I am against that idea as a matter of principle, as it seems to go against the ideals I always thought the US was supposed to stand for (reality is different) While I believe your intentions are good, I don't see it as much different than Trump's very unamerican thoughts/tweets about revoking the media's rights to broadcast.

Even if I am on the wrong side here and the majority of Americans want such systems put in place, I don't think it would be possible to ever block everyone from receiving such content. People will use VPNs, TOR, and whatever else to bypass these. It might block the casual user from accidentally stumbling on it, but it won't ever stop those who want to bypass it. I suppose we could outlaw strong encryption and enforce the laws with draconian punishments. Spend billions of dollars on equipment that we force private companies to install so that we can detect, crack, and monitor as much traffic as possible. I dunno, though. Still seems futile and a little creepy.

[mountain grammy]

3. If they found a home in Russia,

I wish they'd move there.

[lagomorph777]

4. They'll fit right in.

[Dopers_Greed]

5. I'd contribute to a GoFundMe to send them there

Permanently

[zaj]

9. Good, they can't infect the general population there.

That's a really good outcome. They get their "free speech" and if anyone wants to join them there, they can. And unless the entire American voting population starts jumping onto this weird Russian social networking site, they will just talk to themselves.