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WordPress Bans Fascist Website Linked To Charlottesville Killer (fastcompany.com)
tedlistens writes: WordPress has said that it does not censor websites like that of self-proclaimed fascist group Vanguard America. But last night, the group's site was taken offline for violating the company's terms of service. The about-face was likely prompted by Vanguard's participation in last weekend's Unite the Right rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia, during which James Alex Fields drove his car into a crowd, killing one person and injuring 19. Fields has claimed allegiance to Vanguard America; the group denies that Fields was a member. For WordPress to drop a site, even a fascist site, is a very big deal; the same is true of GoDaddy's and Google's decision to drop their registration of neo-Nazi site the Daily Stormer (another site that GoDaddy previously said would be permitted on free speech grounds). WordPress hasn't explained the shift in its approach to the website: the company's user agreement and terms of service have not changed since Charlottesville. That policy, like that of other tech platforms, has long stood by strict neutrality and freedom of expression. That may now be changing.
Does WordPress have anything in their terms of service about inciting violence, committing crimes, or breaking the law in general?
If Vanguard America hasn't distanced themselves from the actions of this alleged member, perhaps they could be classified as a terrorist organization? This isn't necessarily an issue of free speech any more than breaking the law is.
...looking for other sites that violate the "terms of service".
I'm pretty sure it's heavily weighted towards PR.
Look, Wordpress is here to make money. You can't make as much money if everyone is boycotting your services because you "support" hate groups.
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
I call BS. There are plenty of platforms which like to spout that platitude, but have special rules when it comes to naked people. Other platforms disallow "adult content" altogether. Yet point out that a platform is supporting white supremacists, and the "free speech" card gets played.
Nudity is treated as more offensive than racism. Think about how messed up that is. We're only seeing this reaction from GoDaddy / WordPress now because there were full-on Nazis in Charlottesville.
It's just PR. It's not like corporations are people.
Congratulations for being a member of the alt-left. Maybe I should just open my wallet for you and avoid the violence?
What? Are you high?
Fascism is an economic model and has nothing to do with Donald Trump or Nazis.
Really? Really???
"Fascism is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism, characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and control of industry and commerce, that came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe."
"National Socialism (German: Nationalsozialismus), more commonly known as Nazism, is the ideology and set of practices associated with the 20th-century German Nazi Party, Nazi Germany, and other far-right groups. Sometimes characterised as a form of fascism that incorporates scientific racism and antisemitism, Nazism's development was influenced by German nationalism (especially Pan-Germanism), the Völkisch movement and the anti-communist Freikorps paramilitary groups that emerged during the Weimar Republic after Germany's defeat in First World War."
I'm sorry, but you absolutely do not get to paint this a color that pleases you.
Fascism does indeed have a few economic ideas in it, but that's only a very small part of what fascism actually is. Saying Fascism is nothing more than an economic policy is like saying a five course dinner is about the glass of water they serve alongside it.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Looks pretty peaceful to me. Nobody ran him over with a car. In fact, he was completely unharmed. Isn't this the kind of protest you spend hours on here defending?
alt-left is a term invented by you nazis to try to equate your evil with people who just want to live their lives.
First they came for the Nazis, and I did not speak out, for I was not a Nazi.....
Look dude, you may have missed this in history class, but 70ish years ago the world got together and waged outright war on fascists. Like, million man armies, naval armadas, giant fleets of bombers, all leading up to nuclear weapons to stop the fascists. Why? Because fascism is them or us. There is no live and let live with fascists, unless you happen to be a Christian Aryan male.
So please, fuck off with the "omg, poor fascists don't get a platform" and "but the black/liberal/cucks are violent too" shit. Fascist hate speech doesn't get free speech rights. We had this debate during WWII, and the world decided that we're not doing Fascism. You may be sympathetic to fascist speech, and you may be a racist asshole, but the debate on this is well over. Nazis are bad, and we're not helping you support and promote that ideology, end of discussion.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
Mmm, immigrants and globalism are the root of all the world's problems
I can't say I saw GP say that they were.
Your sarcastic statement, however, is as patently false as the statement: Immigrants and globalism don't cause any problems.
Like most things, the truth is somewhere in between, and trying to pretend otherwise just makes people look like ignorant fools.
I'm not a member, nor do I identify with, anything alt-right. Reacting to comments with the limited vocabulary of the Left leaves you accusing everyone so dishes with you of being a fascist. That's stupid.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
BLM and antifa have been using violence and arson for quite a while now, across the US and in Europe. Why are you suddenly concerned about violence now? Where have you been?
That's the opposite of a polite society.
Wordpress, and Google, are both pretty savvy about "narrative" (probably true for Go Daddy, too, but I don't know Go Daddy). Being savvy about narratives is part of their corporate cultures.
So what has changed between before the death of Heather and after it? The words on the websites had not changed significantly. The narratives are the same.
What changed is the inescapable recognition that the words had motivated 700+ loose nuts to pick up assault weapons and march on Charlotteville, and one loose nut to use a car as a lethal weapon.
There are limits to free speech. Yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater is beyond free speech protection. Getting a few dozen Good Old Boys drunk on mob hysteria, pointing them at some group and telling them "Let's you and them fight!" is also beyond the limits of free speech.
So that is what has changed. Go Daddy, Google, and Wordpress now recognize that they can be used as megaphones to incite violence, and that violates their TOSs as well as their collective corporate conscience.
There is a legion of white men between 30 and 60 years old who have been disenfranchised; the American Dream they had been promised is no more. Passed along from grade to grade during their school years since staying with their peers was more important than getting a solid education, their promised lifestyle of living like their Dad had, putting in forty hours a week on an assembly line until retirement but having their evenings for poker games and bowling leagues and their weekends for barbeques, has died with automation and computers. There is no way that America can send this vast horde back to school, there are simply too many of them to get them all retrained for today's decent jobs. This is a huge pol of anger and resentment that can be manipulated by persons who are unencumbered by ethical considerations, such as Rush Limbaugh, Jerry Springer, David Duke, Richard Spencer, and Donald Trump.
It is critical that web hosts, Twitter, and similar services that can act as megaphones recognize their potential for inciting violence and enforce their TOSs.
"antifa" or anti-fascist groups wouldn't exist without the fascist groups. They wouldn't have even shown up to do counter-protests if the fascists didn't come to various locations. Everyone who says these things obviously support these fascist ideas, or at least that's how everyone around the planet perceives this false equivalency.
Arguing that white supremacist groups, pro-Nazi groups, etc should be able to perform their what is basically a "march for treason" either supports their goals or does not comprehend what these groups actually want to accomplish. Their very loud calls for a "white ethnostate" is a call for genocide, murder, and totalitarianism; there is no other way to accomplish this goal. IMHO anyone flying a Nazi flag is committing treason, as the Nazi were most certainly considered enemies of the USA since they declared war against us. Marching with their flag is "adheres to their enemies" and "providing them aid". Now, just "displaying" the Nazi flag is covered free speech, but these marches go far beyond just display.
I'm not even going to address BLM here, as that is a different conversation. I am just addressing the antifa vs fa problem.
The fact that your post is marked at 4, Insightful is disturbing. Mine will probably be marked down, which is equally disturbing.
You're making a "chicken and egg" argument. The problem is that antifa was not in response to white supremacists. It was in response to our new President being elected and a rejection of conservative/libertarian values. If you're not a liberal, you're a fascist or a racist or a bigot. That's their mantra. This whole white supremacy thing is a circus side show that the left fell for. It has nothing to do with what's been taking place over the last few years. We've had BLM torching entire city blocks, assaulting people, inciting the murder of police officers, more recently we have antifa doing similar things.. but only now does the media really start talking about violence. It's absurd.
Antifa has no moral or legal right to physically attack people. That woman died because Antifa physically attacked people they don't agree with regardless of whether or not the driver reacted in retaliation or out of fear.
The woman died because a neo-Nazi fuckwit ran her over. There is no other reason no matter how much you try and whitewash it