When the marching orders come for the next Troll Storm, the hatred could be aimed at you.
CNN aired a special this weekend called “Spreading Hate” where Kyra Phillips deconstructed the damage of an unrelenting Troll Storm.
What happens when they publish your phone number? What happens when they publish your address? What happens when they arm themselves with a semi-automatic and march into your pizzeria, looking for the portal to Narnia?!!
It’s not free speech. It’s assault. It’s attempted murder. Or in the case of Heather Heyer, actual murder.
These people are not stable. These people are not exercising a right. They’re angry at the world for something taken from them that was never really theirs to begin with…
THE WHITE HOT SPOTLIGHT.
Listen.
You want the spotlight, earn it. There is no free pass to the white hot spotlight. Sorry. Being white, being male, role playing supremacy doesn’t make you supreme, it makes you sad.
How many American Soldiers died in World War II fighting The Nazis? Haven’t we heard enough from them?
I applaud the Southern Poverty Law Center. I applaud the Anti-Defamation League. I applaud Color of Change. Their work is divine. But it’s also the people’s work.
It’s on us.
We cannot let Trolls hide in the shadows of anonymous phone calls, we need to bring them out into the light of day so we can give them a much needed hug.
It will be kind and it will be gentle. To quote The Führer, “Believe me.”
New York lawmakers introduced a bill that seeks to decrease cyberbullying by banning anonymous posting on the web. If passed, the bill would require site administrators to delete any comments without a name, contact information, and IP address tied to them. The proposed legislation is so stupid it hurts.
Governments, including ours, approach social media as if it was a threat to be controlled and their response was clumsy, futile, even embarrassing. The lesson? Technology policy and containment strategy don’t mix. Attempts to influence the way information is shared online rarely achieve their desired effect, and they also convey (sometimes intentionally, sometimes not) a general sense that communication is dangerous in the digital age. Inevitably, the question becomes, dangerous to who?
The internet gives an unprecedented level of power to people at the edges. Internet platforms and services… along with a range of mobile, networking and telecommunications services, have empowered citizens to challenge the government, both our own as well as other governments whose actions affect us.
They also provide activists with effective tools for outreach and promotion at little or no cost, making grassroots organizing feasible for people who would otherwise not have access to more traditional avenues of political expression. Once again, technological advances have paved the way for a revolution in global governance. People are using the internet to protest against what they see as injustice. That’s something that we definitely want to encourage.
There is a dark underbelly, no doubt. Extremists of all varieties can reach literally billions in obscurity for as little as $10 per month. No algorithm, software or lawsuits will ever stop cyber-hate. Stormfront was shut down and within days another site almost identical site was up and running. Also, the Supreme Court has ruled hate speech is free speech. And I’m not sure that even if it were possible (it isn’t) would I trust the Trump regime’s Attorney General to decide who can say what.
Beat them at the ballot box and the arena of ideas. Talk to your neighbors. Challenge stereotypes and prejudices. Let people know jokes about race and national origin, sexual orientation ect. are not okay in your presence.
Censorship never works. Decency and love always work.