This week in class, we’ve been discussing various studies of amendment rights, and the study of “The Dark Side of the Internet” was particularly interesting to me. In the documentary we’re currently watching, they explain the growth of white supremacy groups via the internet. Specifically, on a website called “stormfront.org.” This site has become one of the top sites for white supremacists to confer, communicate worldwide, and share ideas.
As a result of encouragement and inspiration from this internet site, some of the deadliest hate crimes have been committed in various parts of the country. An example that the video gives is the murder of 9 innocent people by Dylan Ruth, who committed these murders after only weeks of speaking with other white supremacists on “stormfront.org.” In addition to being the inspiration to many racist ideologies and hate crimes, the internet has also been a popular place to spread false statistics, even to people protesting racism. The web can be seen as a vast, black hole of information to many, and it is often difficult to distinguish what is accurate versus made-up. Through many different techniques, it can be quite easy to get a certain website to the top of the list when one searches for specific phrases. One of the most popular examples of this concept is the search for “black on white crime.” Around when President Trump was elected in 2016, he used Twitter and his own media platforms to spread false statistics about the amount of “black on white” crime in the country. This information was not accurate in the slightest, however, Twitter users often believe the information they see because they don’t realize or try to see if it’s really trustworthy. White supremacists have also spread false statistics of this ratio by advertising their website to be the first link that shows up when this search is often made. As Mr. Stewart mentioned in class, an individual looking for this statistic may be misled to “stormfront.org” instead of an official FBI website with accurate information. Once again, harmless people trying to get information on crime ratios could see this false statistic and believe that it is accurate.
Overall, although the internet has brought many advancements to society and has made all of our lives significantly easier, it needs to be used carefully because it also has a negative reputation for fostering hate and spreading false information.
I agree with what you said about the dangers of media. I also think that Trump has not help with this misinformation crisis. In fact, he has arguably made it worse (https://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/internet/fake-news-conspiracy-theories-journalism-research/) as he calls trusted and accurate news outlets "fake news". By doing this, many of the people that trust Trump won't believe real information presented to them and are much more likely to blindly follow Trump's posts or other media posts they see. I believe that this is one of the main issues with media at the moment, as it has always had misinformation, but the current president makes the general public more likely to trust the internet over news outlets.
ReplyDeleteI also think that another example of spreading white supremacist values would be Prussian blue, because it was through youtube that many white supremacists were able to unite. This also helped other white supremacist bands spread their ideals as well. In addition it is extremely tough for media companies to take down what they deem is false because it infringes on the first amendment rights which is a whole other issue altogether. And although it would be easier if most people are aware of these white supremacist tactics, but the reality is that they are not and that is where the difficulty lays, especially for people like Dylan and others.
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