Solutions and Policy Combat Spreading Hate

• By theWHIR.com , May 21, 2004

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Solutions and Policy Combat Spreading Hate

Rawlson O'Neil King, theWHIR.com

May 21, 2004 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY

REVIEW) -- The Internet has provided hate groups with formerly

inconceivable opportunities. Online racists, anti-Semites, and

anti-government extremists can reach a worldwide audience and can more

easily portray themselves as legitimate. Anyone using the Internet may

inadvertently be exposed to hate online. When uninformed or easily

influenced people – particularly children – come across hate

propaganda, they can fall prey to its deceptive reasoning and adopt

hateful beliefs themselves, sometimes going so far as to act on what

they have read.

Gauging the affects of online hate on the

vast population of Internet users presents enormous difficulties. No

reliable measurement has been taken of the number of Internet users who

find and read hateful material online. Nor can one safely generalize

about the ways in which this material affects the beliefs and actions

of those who read it.

New research however has revealed that

the amount of hate material on the Web is growing substantially.

Neo-Nazis, anti-Semites and racists are increasingly using the Internet

to get their message out, to recruit new members and open new channels

of communication among sympathizers, according to UK-based email

filtering company SurfControl (surfcontrol.com).

The company's research has found that the number of hate and violence

Web sites has grown approximately 300 percent since 2000. At that time,

the firm was tracking 2,756 Web sites. By April 2004 however, the

number of Internet hate and violence sites under the company's

surveillance had risen to 10,926.

SurfControl also found that number of

sites that promoted hatred against Jews, Muslims, Americans, Asians,

homosexuals and blacks, as well as gratuitous violence against these

groups, had risen by over 25 percent since the beginning of the year.

During 2003, the number of such sites was

up by only 30 percent. Susan Larson, SurfControl's Vice President of

Global Content, contends that the increase in hate sites has been

driven by political, social and cultural conflicts, such as the Iraq

War and proposed legislation to deal with homosexual marriages.

"Our company has observed the convergence

of sites promoting violence and those advocating hate," she states.

"Many hate sites have been created due to the polarization of religious

and political public opinion throughout the United States and the

globe."

According to Larson, hate sites are

problematic due to the liability issues that they can create in the

workplace environment. Employee exposure to such material can increase

the risk of litigation against an employer on the basis of harassment

or discrimination. As a result, network administrators should exercise

extreme caution, and ensure the implementation of access management

policies that monitor and filter sites by hate groups.

SurfControl offers technology that can

effectively filters out objectionable content, such as hate, based on

specific criteria. When installed behind a firewall or proxy server,

SurfControl's pass-by "sniffer" technology builds an accurate picture

of network traffic with no impact on network performance. It handles

all Internet protocols, so that an organization can filter SMTP, POP,

and NNTP as well as standard HTTP and FTP requests.

SurfControl can filter offensive traffic

with minimal network reconfiguration. The firm works to research,

harvest and categorize objectionable content. Network administrators

utilizing their technology then have the option to determine what

content should be screened and barred. Since the filtering system is

flexible, it can be designed to revolve around specific corporate

policy. This makes it a powerful tool against hate.

"We feel that all corporations should

implement a good, responsible filtering and educate their users on

proper network usage," states Larson. "Network usage is always

evolving, so you need to involve end-users in protecting the network

and understanding what constitutes proper use."

That involves the enforcement of

acceptable usage policies. Some hosting providers have actively

demonstrated their commitment to their AUPs. In July 2003, hosting

reseller Alabanza (alabanza.com)

removed an anti-Semitic site in accord with its policies, which forbid

the posting of objectionable material and permitted the removal of such

a site at its discretion.

Because hate speech is permissible and

protected under the First Amendment in the United States, the majority

of hate sites are situated there. For this reason, technological

solutions are required in corporate environments to filter them out.

Service providers are also well advised

to place restrictions against hate sites in their acceptable usage

policies. By so doing, they can avoid all the associated legal

(potential government investigations and lawsuits) and technical issues

(heavy bandwidth usage and site attacks) associated with hosting them.

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