Stormfront (website)
- For other uses, see Stormfront
Stormfront White Nationalist Community is a prominent and controversial white nationalist, white pride, and white supremacist Internet forum. Its motto is "White Pride World Wide". The site owner refers to Stormfront strictly as a white nationalist website. Its critics and the media, however, often label it as Neo-Nazi and accuse it of promoting racism and hate speech, [1][2] describing Stormfront.org as a "neo-nazi organisation." [3][4][5] Although Stormfront claims to prohibit the promotion of illegal activities under United States law, it has been listed[6] as a hate site, and a number of internet content filters prevent access to it.
Overview
Stormfront calls itself a "Racialist discussion board for pro-White activists and anyone else interested in White survival". Most of the members of Stormfront say that they are opposed to any form of "race-mixing" between the human races and support various forms of racism. The articles posted there often denounce non-white immigration and strongly advocate such views as white nationalism, glorification of Nazi leaders like Adolf Hitler, white supremacy, white separatism, anti-Semitism, anti-Arabism and homophobia, and such feelings as white pride.
History
The Stromfront forum began as a dial-up Bulletin board system in the early 1990s and has been on the Internet since 1995 .[7] By 1997, Stormfront.org had expanded and began hosting other white nationalist websites.[8] Stormfront had more than 92,000 registered user accounts as of September 2006, with fewer than 24,000 being classified as active (an active user account is defined as an account that is not banned and has been logged into within the past 180 days). The webmaster of the site is Don Black, a self-described racialist and former Grand Wizard, or national director, of the Ku Klux Klan.
Forums
Stormfront has a variety of international sections catering to users from Italy, Spain, Britain, Canada, Australia, France, Latin America, Netherlands, Baltic & Scandinavia, Serbia, Russia and South Africa. The internal forum activities take place in forums entitled Polls, Poetry, Quotations, Music and Entertainment, Revisionism, Lounge, Classified Ads, eActivism and Stormfront Webmasters, Multimedia, Graphics and Talk. Some form of self-help is given in forums entitled Privacy, Network Security & Encryption, Business and Finance , Self Defense, Martial Arts & Preparedness, Health and Fitness, Homemaking, Education and Homeschooling and Legal Issues.
Members
Stormfront caters to non-Jewish white people of European descent from all across the world, and has sections in various languages, especially Dutch. Posters from the United States are the largest contingent, but other English-speaking countries (the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia) are well-represented, as well as the Netherlands and Flanders. The rest of the posters are from other European countries and Latin America, with a few from South Africa. Prominent posters include or included Vonbluvens, Kevin Alfred Strom, Paul Fromm, David Duke, Jurgen Graf. The website also provides internet radio shows hosted largely by site members.
Hosted material
A section called "Our Legacy of Truth" presents a variety of texts on racist and fascist topics. "1001 Quotes By and About Jews" are presented, as well as text about "Race", "Christian Identity", "Eugenics", "National Socialism" (including various works by Adolf Hitler), and "Viewpoints". Another section called "Text library" presents text on "White nationalist issues", "Affirmative Action and anti-White-bias", "Immigration in America", "Racial Differences", "Revisionism", "National Socialism" and "Zionism & Judaism," as well as other texts.
Extension of views
The creators of Stormfront.org also operate other websites on the Internet, including Martinlutherking.org. The site purports to be an informational resource for students, and others interested in Dr. King's life and works. The material presented is negative in tone. It has pages entitled "Why the King Holiday Should be Repealed!", "Black Invention Myths" and "Bring the dream to your school!". The material provided calls Dr. King "a philanderer, a drunk, a liar, a plagiarist, and a cheater" and "a sexual degenerate, an America-hating Communist, and a criminal betrayer of even the interests of his own people" Stormfront serves as a host to some other white nationalist websites, such as solargeneral.com.
Controversies and criticism
In May 2003, Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly reported on a segregated prom being held in Georgia and posted a poll on his website asking his viewers if they would send their own kids to one. A link to the poll was posted on Stormfront and messages subsequently posted there implied that a mass of readers had duly voted in order to skew the poll in favor of segregation. O'Reilly reported this the following week and refused to read the final results due to this, citing Stormfront as the culprit by name and referring to it as a "Neo-Nazi organization." [2] [9]
In August 2005, a candidate for city council of Charlotte, North Carolina dropped out of the race after it was revealed that he had posted on Stormfront. Republican Doug Hanks had posted more than 4,000 times over the previous three years using the name "Snarkie". In one comment he called African-Americans "rabid beasts". Hanks, a writer and actor from Connecticut, said that his postings were intended to gain the trust of Stormfront users in order to help him write a novel. "I did what I thought I needed to do to establish myself as a credible white nationalist."[10]
Stormfront is listed by some hate group watchdog organizations as a white supremacist and hate site, and as a result it's blocked by some Internet filters commonly used in public places.[11] [12] In Germany access to Stormfront is blocked by some ISPs in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.[13] [14] Stormfront also accuses one of the largest American internet providers, AOL, of practicing censorship by blocking its subscribers from accessing Stormfront. Critics accuse Stormfront members of supporting violence, genocide, and ethnic cleansing. Stormfront discussion and direct link to Free ethnic cleansing manual book.
Counter forums
As a counter to Stormfront, the anti-racist Web site, Mootstormfront, was founded in February 2006. The site is aimed at being an alternative to the Stormfront forums by providing, according to its motto, "The interface between racism and reality".
References
- ^ "RedState, White Supremacy, and Responsibility", Daily Kos, December 5, 2005
- ^ a b Bill O'Reilly, "Circling the Wagons in Georgia", Fox News, May 08, 2003
- ^ Chip Berlet, "The Hard Edge of Hatred" The Nation, August 23, 2006
- ^ "WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center: Case No. DTV2001-0023", WIPO, January 13, 2002
- ^ "Jared Taylor, a racist in the guise of 'expert'", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 23, 2005
- ^ Southern Poverty Law Center Hate on the Net, Intelligence Report, Winter 1999
- ^ "Electronic Storm: Stormfront grows a thriving neo-Nazi community", Southern Poverty Law Center, September 14, 2005
- ^ "Don Black: White Pride World Wide", Anti-Defamation League, 2001
- ^ "Hate groups thrive in cyberspace", Santa Cruz Sentinel, August 22, 1999
- ^ "Internet postings end politico's shot", Columbia Daily Tribune, August 6, 2005; see also: Charlotte Observer (registration required)
- ^ Statement of the Anti-Defamation League on hate on the internet before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation", United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, May 20, 1999
- ^ Extremism in cyberspace: the legal issues affecting internet hate speech", Anti-Defamation League, 2000
- ^ "German fined for publishing neo-Nazi web links", The Register, October 2004
- ^ "Internet censorship", World Future Fund, 2002