About us
All social networks have some right wing extremist that are attempting to spread their version of hatred, inhumane messages and racist attitudes. To counteract this, ZEIT, the Amadeu Antonio Foundation and others have initiated the Social Networks Against Nazis.
These social network sites are aligning themselves against the extremism and informing their majority of users that they do not condone the Nazi practices. This campaign was worldwide in many countries. By doing so, many Social Networks joined in to stand against Nazi radicalism, beliefs and hatred. During the time period given, the social network sites ran banners to show they are against hatred and prejudice. This included links to the website “Social Networks Against Nazis’ which allowed them to see why this was an important cause. They were also shown ways to battle against those that chose to spread their hatred. To show that they were committed to putting an end to extremism. There is also an available logo that can be used as one’s profile picture to spread awareness. To date, there have been more than 50 large and small social networking sites that have joined the movement to end Nazi and neo nazi hatred, discrimination and outright hatred.
With the abundance of new social networking sites constantly being developed, Nazi and neo nazi is capitalizing on the chance to recruit new people to their beliefs. With the internet having such a wide reach, the Nazi and neo nazi groups no longer have to rely on person to person contact in order to spread the hatred and gain a new generation of followers. With the ease of access to literally millions of people, they hope to spread their hatred through videos and online discussions.
We are here to educate users of the many tricks and trades that nazi and their sympathizers use to get past the walls of security and toughened user policies that have been instituted by many of the main social networking sites. Sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube now ban those users who deliberately post hatred discussions, any Nazi and neo nazi propaganda. These Nazi groups have begun to use codes of different types to spread their hatefulness. Codes such as ‘88’ which means Heil Hitler. Even some that symbolize how one racist person murdered 168 people by bombing the Oklahoma trade center.
However, there is too high of a volume of users to be able to check each page on social networks. So they need us! We need to report, contradict and stand up for the victims in these nazi defamation rants. We need to be vigilant and report even those times when they use the truths to attract others to pages to openly discuss their own agenda. By using the truth, for example, stiffer punishment for child abusers, they may begin with that conversation and progressively include the groups they are against, start spreading their hateful beliefs and hope to indoctrinate their new generation of Nazis.
We believe that sitting back and ignoring racism online is very unproductive. When we post direct opposition to these tirades spewed forth by Nazi and neo nazi, we are sending clear messages that their beliefs are not accepted on the Web.
Racism, defamation, slander, and prejudice is constantly changing as to avoid detection. This alone shows that they understand what they are doing is not popular. This, however, needs a proactive response that is also flexible. Therefore we are looking to educate all youth up to a certain age, about positive democratic processes and also the dangers of Nazi extremism and all racism.
We are also developing strategies on how to respond to, identify and report any extremism that they witness.