I try to avoid talking about the deadly tragedy that happened in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend. But it’s not going away. For over 20 years, the Internet served as a free speech haven for any kind of speech, good or bad. But in the wake of Charlottesville, and the ever-increasing social/political divide, that may change. So now it’s Internet vs hatemongers.
I title this because more and more IT services are banning such extremism. For example, Airbnb banned white supremacists as hosts and as customers. OKCupid is kicking them out of their dating services. Downloading music services like Spotify banned hate music from all play lists. Then there’s PayPal and Apple Pay. They banned the business of all who use them to trade ‘white power’ products, like swastikas. So they’ll have to trade such hateful products elsewhere. Even Google is getting in the act. Monday, they announced they will no longer provide Internet service to Daily Stormer. Daily Stormer is a neo-Nazi website. Cloudfare is following suit. But some worry about what impact this will have on free speech. A group called Electric Frontier Foundation talked about how this could impact free speech in the future.
First of all, I am glad ISP’s and others in IT support are standing up to these hatemongers. They’re not only ones to use the Internet to promote evil. Terrorist groups like ISIS do the same thing, even show videos of them serving ice cream. But Electric Frontier Foundation also has a point. What if they don’t stop with hatemongers? What if they ban anything they may offend anyone at all? For example, what if they banned certain TV shows because they offend others? Or what if they ban certain preachers because they offend different groups. Like I said, I applaud them for their actions against extreme groups. But on the other hand, what will they consider ‘extreme’ next? In the fight of Internet vs Hatemongers, who will be next?