CyberLaw Blog

Archive for November 23rd, 2008

Facebook, MySpace, YouTube are ‘recruiting tools for hate groups’ | NEWS.com.au

By staff writers and wires November 19, 2008 08:25am

THE popular websites MySpace, Facebook and YouTube are being used as recruiting tools by extremist groups, experts have warned.

“(These websites) are the ‘killer apps’ of the internet today, and they’re used by millions, but the virus of hate certainly has infected those technologies,” Christopher Wolf, chair of the International Network Against CyberHate (INACH), told the Global Summit on Internet Hate Speech.

“The internet toolbox that is available to hatemongers has had a number of new items added to it over the last several years,” Mr Wolf said, citing Web 2.0 features such as blogs, social networks, video sites and instant messaging.

Deborah Lauter, national director of civil rights for the Anti-Defamation League, said extremist groups “use these social-networking sites and they create a community, a community of hate and it has very real consequences.”
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