Alt-Right Seeks Alternative After Tech Firms Crack Down On Extremism

The internet companies have recently boosted efforts to clamp down on online hate speech and started denying service and blocking accounts of users who violate their nondiscrimination policies. For example, Airbnb suspended the accounts of users who wanted to book accommodation to attend a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in Vancouver, where one was killed and others were injured when a suspected white nationalist allegedly drove his car into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters.

The Los Angeles Times describes how, having been turned down by the big tech companies, the alt-right is setting up its own online niche and moving to alternative platforms more lenient towards its extreme views. WeSearchr, Hatreon, Counter.Fund and social network Gab are among platforms that the white supremacists employ.

“The new companies are small, paling in audience size to their gargantuan, mainstream counterparts. But piece by piece, supporters of the far right are assembling their own corporate tech world — a shadow Silicon Valley, one with fewer rules,” writes the Los Angeles Times.

Landing amid terrifying events in Charlottesville, the article will make you evaluate the extent and limits of freedom of speech and consider possible ways of fighting extremism online. Where is the line between free speech and extremism, and who should draw it? Is banning radical users from the mainstream platforms and allowing ultra-fanatic spaces to bloom the best way to fight hate online? These are the questions that sparkled in my mind after reading the article.