Tuesday, March 16, 2010:
Beneficial as its uses are, the fact that technology would be used to spread the message of hate and intolerance was always a given. A new report by the Simon Wiesenthal Center yesterday said that the use of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube by militant and hate groups grew by almost 20 per cent in 2009, says Reuters.
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The study compiled data from varied sources-forums, blogs espousing violence, anti-Semitism, homophobia, hate music and terrorism-and discovered an increase from 10,000 last year. "The numbers are probably, at the end of the day, multiples of that," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center, who has made it his business to research hate on the Internet since 1995. "That should be taken as a low ball figure."
The net was proving to be a fertile recruiting ground for extremists, who were trying to convince people to act as so-called "lone wolves" rather than as part of a group. At a news conference, Cooper cited instances of hate on the Internet, which included videos of extremists asking for recruits and demonstrating the making of improvised explosive devices (IED).
There were also a range of online games, like those which urged people to bomb Haitian quake survivors to those that advocated shooting of illegal immigrants and gays. The many Facebook groups included "national kick a ginger day" and "I love curry bashing."
Ashish Joshi, EFYTIMES News Network
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