"Alt-right" Still Parading Ignorance, Stupidity, Malice, Etc.

[JimC]

If a far-left/anarchist group openly advocated violence as a means of over-throwing the state (not just the Antifa violence against fascists in demos), then they too should get a Facebook ban. Ani is correct - it's not the political position, but the advocacy of violent means that should be the trigger.

[pErvinalia]

Facebook bans far-right groups including BNP, EDL and Britain First

Years after the company first dismissed fears it was empowering extremists, Facebook has permanently banned a number of far-right organisations and individuals including the British National party (BNP), the English Defence League (EDL) and Britain First .

The ban, which came into effect at midday on Thursday, extends beyond the groups and individuals specifically cited as hate organisations: posts and other content that “expresses praise or support” for them will also be banned, as will users who coordinate support for the groups.

The move is the latest in a series of crackdowns by Facebook, beginning in February when it banned the rightwing activist Tommy Robinson under the same rules, and continuing in March when it reversed a longstanding policy that had allowed “white nationalists” and “white separatists” to post on the site, provided they steered clear of promoting “white supremacy”.

A further 12 individuals and accounts have been banned by the site: the BNP and its former chairman, Nick Griffin; Britain First, its leader, Paul Golding, and former deputy leader Jayda Fransen; the EDL and Paul Ray, a founder member of the group; Knights Templar International and the far-right activist Jim Dowson; the National Front and its leader, Tony Martin; and the far-right activist Jack Renshaw, a former spokesman for the proscribed terrorist organisation National Action...

Oh dear, what a shame.

A sad day for freedum of speech.

[Cunt]

Facebook, being a blog-hosting site that sells ads and information, doesn't want to be associated with unprofitable opinions.

In other news, I still can't tell if Gad Saad is alt-right. Is there a checklist or something?

[JimC]

From an article in the Melbourne Age:

The Christchurch terrorist attack has prompted an unprecedented surge in online activity by white supremacists as well as a call by a group with Islamic State links for attacks on Australians travelling in Indonesia, according to ongoing analysis by an American intelligence firm.

According to Rita Katz, the director of the SITE Intelligence Group, the wave of online support that the Christchurch attack continues to attract is unlike the response to any other right-wing attack.

“Attacks always spark reactions from different extremist communities, but when it comes to the far right, there was never anything like the response to the Christchurch attack,” she told The Sun-Herald.

“If you compared it to jihadist attacks, it was like the 9-11 of far-right terrorists. Even the horrific Norway attacks by Anders Breivik didn’t amass this level of universal approval by the far-right.”

She said SITE, a US-based private intelligence agency that monitors online extremism for corporate and government clients, is monitoring a surge in calls for similar attacks by far right extremists, many of who are calling for further similar attacks.

“A month after his attack, those in the far-right still talk online about their desire to ‘Make Brenton Proud’ by committing acts of violence and share endearing artwork of him. Many of these posts and images likewise incite for violence against Muslims.”

Ms Katz said white supremacists have discussed the “lesson of Christchurch” as being that “accelerationism works”. Accelerationism in this context meaning violent, retaliation-sparking attacks like Tarrant’s, she said.

SITE has provided the Herald with screenshots of far right memes and artwork in support of the attacks.

SITE has also collected calls for white supremacists in New Zealand to steal guns in the wake of newly implemented gun control measures.

Similarly SITE has detected calls for revenge attacks against Australians by Muslim extremists, one of which quoted Senator Fraser Anning’s comments blaming Muslims for the attack.

One message, shared on March 15, 2019, was posted along with news reports and photos of the shooting at the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch and called on IS supporters to “sharpen your knife” and attack Australians in Indonesia.

“If you find... kuffar travelers from the land of Australia, then stab him!” it said in part.

“If you find they are on the beach, then kill them! If you find those kufr immigrants coming to your country and setting their dirty foot, then kill him!”

She said the recruitment and radicalisation activities of white supremacist and jihadist groups in the wake of the attacks mirrored one another.

Writing in the Daily Beast earlier this month Ms Katz noted that while right-wing extremists sought to exploit the Christchurch attack in online venues ranging from community-specific forums like Stormfront and Vanguard News Network (VNN) to alternative, free-speech-purposed social media platforms like Gab and Minds, jihadists were doing the same thing on platforms like Telegram messenger and Facebook.

“These parallel swells of incitements by both jihadists and far-right extremists in some ways strip both movements of their ideological veils, leaving behind a much barer look at extremism itself,” she wrote.

“For these violent groups and communities, such tragedies are mutually beneficial events. That said, an attack like that in Christchurch should not be seen simply a tragedy in and of itself; it is a link in a longer, branching chain of attacks.

“From jihadists’ attacks on Charlie Hebdo in France and Pulse nightclub in Orlando, to white nationalists’ attacks on the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City and now in Christchurch - each of these events adds more fuel to extremists’ delusions of ‘Crusades’ and ethnic ‘invasions.’”

[L'Emmerdeur]

More on the antipodean neo-Nazis:

'Alt-right to release "avalanche" of election campaign propaganda to help Fraser Anning'

Leaked messages have revealed the Australian alt-right's secret plan to use Queensland senator Fraser Anning to expand its extreme agenda in the Australian Parliament and beyond.

The texts, seen by Background Briefing, offer a rare insight into the strategy the movement intends to use to further its goals and spread its ideology.

Members of the group are seen discussing plans for confrontational racist stunts to be performed during the current federal election campaign.

The proposed stunts, designed to attract global attention and help Senator Anning get re-elected, include performing in "blackface and other taboos" and "burning the Koran".

Another stated goal is "obtaining and accessing a giant email and SMS database" in order to send messages that are "extremely right-wing".

[L'Emmerdeur]

Meanwhile in the US, striking a brave blow for free speech:

'White Supremacists Disrupt DC Bookstore Discussion on Race and Politics'

A group of white supremacist neo-Nazis interrupted an author discussion Saturday at the popular Washington, DC bookstore Politics and Prose.

Author Jonathan Metzl, director of Vanderbilt University’s Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, was discussing his book “Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland,” when about 10 men thought to be from a group called the American Identity Movement—formerly known as Identity Evropa—barged into the bookstore with a megaphone and began chanting white supremacist slogans.

One of the men said, “You would have the white working class trade their homeland for handouts.” He added, “But we, as nationalists and identitarians, can offer the workers of this country a homeland, their birthright, in addition to health care, good jobs and so forth.”

I posted a link earlier in this thread to an interview with Metzl.

[L'Emmerdeur]

I surmise that the 'Daily Stormer' owner has simply written off any bank accounts he has in the US.

'Judge: Man can recover money from neo-Nazi website founder'

A Muslim-American radio host can recover monetary damages against a neo-Nazi website operator who falsely accused him of terrorism, a federal judge ruled without deciding on a dollar amount.

SiriusXM Radio show host Dean Obeidallah is seeking more than $1 million in damages against The Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin, who hasn’t responded to Obeidallah’s libel lawsuit.

Chief U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus Jr. agreed Wednesday to enter a default judgment against Anglin and his company, Moonbase Holdings LLC. Sargus scheduled a June 12 hearing in Columbus, Ohio, to determine the proper amount of damages and fees.

Obeidallah “has adequately stated his claims and is entitled to monetary relief,” Sargus wrote. But the judge added that an evidentiary hearing is necessary “because Obeidallah’s evidence does not provide definite figures of his injuries.”

Anglin now faces possible default judgments in four federal cases, including separate lawsuits filed by two other targets of his site’s online harassment campaigns.

[Brian Peacock]

Alex Jones dropped from Facebook?

Oh dear, what a shame.

[pErvinalia]

Milo as well. And Loius Farrakhan.

[Brian Peacock]

How can we ever come back from this corporate attack on our public intellectuals?

[Joe]

I guess the quality of our discourse will just be diminished. Of course, we still have Trump on Twitter, so there is some vestige of freedumb left to us.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Government suppression of freedom of expression in the US is a terrible thing.

'White supremacists plead guilty in Charlottesville riot'

Two members of a white supremacist group pleaded guilty Friday to federal rioting charges in connection with a white nationalist rally in Virginia and political rallies in California.

Benjamin Drake Daley, 26, of Redondo Beach, California, and Michael Paul Miselis, 30, of Lawndale, California, each pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to riot.

Daley and Miselis are the last of four members of the Rise Above Movement indicted in Virginia to plead guilty. The militant white supremacist group was known for having members who train in mixed martial arts street-fighting techniques.

Two other members of the group — Cole White and Thomas Gillen — each previously pleaded guilty to the same charge.

All four men admitted they punched and kicked demonstrators who showed up to protest against white nationalists during a torch-lit march at the University of Virginia and the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in August 2017.

The men were indicted in October on two charges: traveling to incite riots and conspiracy to riot.

Prosecutors said photos and video footage showed the men attacking counterprotesters in Charlottesville and also participating in violence at political rallies the same year in Huntington Beach and Berkeley, California.

...

Daley moved to dismiss the charges against him, arguing that the federal Anti-Riot Act is unconstitutional because it is overbroad and vague, and infringes on First Amendment activities. The judge denied his request.

“Instead of being tried under a broad, vague and unconstitutional statute, Mr. Daley has chosen to plead guilty and appeal the constitutionality of the statute” to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said Daley’s attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Lisa Lorish.

Prosecutors said Daley, one of the founders of the Rise Above Movement, was “chiefly responsible” for organizing the group’s presence at the Unite the Right rally.

“These avowed white supremacists traveled to Charlottesville to incite and commit acts of violence, not to engage in peaceful First Amendment expression,” U.S. Attorney Thomas Cullen said in a statement.

As part of their guilty pleas, the men admitted their acts of violence were not in self-defense.

[Brian Peacock]

When will this madness end? If only we could sit down in a civilised manner and discuss white supremacists' concerns over a nice cup of tea and a oaty cracker...

[Animavore]

Neo-Nazi networks exposed across US military
By Jacob Crosse
4 May 2019
Follow the WSWS on Facebook and sign up for our daily newsletter.

Over the past two months investigations published by Unicorn Riot and the Huffington Post have exposed eleven members of Identity Evropa, an American neo-Nazi organization, operating freely within the US military. The latest exposure reveals the extent to which reactionary forces are allowed to cultivate, fester and recruit within the United States armed forces across all branches and ranks.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/0 ... HJUWL9Y9TM

[Animavore]

White supremacists interrupt Arkansas Holocaust remembrance event

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing ... buGKVddwMo