Hate, violence web sites quadruple
p2pnet.net News:- The number of hate and violence sites has almost quadrupled in four years and Web sites attacking Americans, Muslims, Jews, homosexuals and African-Americans have grown 26% since January, nearly surpassing the growth in all of 2003, says a report.
SurfControl, makers of Web and e-mail content filtering software, has one of the world’s largest databases of categorized Internet content, as well as researchers in 15 countries, it says.
Existing sites that were already being monitored by SurfControl have expanded in "shocking or curious ways," it states on its site, going on that some web pages carry graphic photos of dead and mutilated human beings.
"One white supremacist site has initiated a dating page for single white supremacists seeking a mate, as well as a page offering a $1,000 scholarship to the young white racist writing the best essay of ‘actionable, practical solutions’ to dealing with anyone who is not white."
Susan Larson, vp for global content, says, "We’ve begun to see a convergence of sites promoting violence and those advocating hate. We monitor Web sites, tracking as they go from merely expressing strong opinions to using the language of hate, or as they cross the line from advocating hate to barely veiled threats of violence."
Larson said topical events such as the banning of gay marriages or the opening of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ caused a spike in the number of political or religious sites espousing extremist viewpoints.
"For example, some new sites use the Gibson movie as a launching pad to express hatred of non-Christian religious groups," she says.
"One site depicts the incident of a brutally slain homosexual as morally justifiable, while another anti-Semitic site targets national political figures, including President George W. Bush, as so-called ‘Jewish Mafia’. These sites seem to reflect a growing tolerance for anti-social behavior and a polarization of religious and political public opinion that attracts certain elements of the U.S. population who share a fascination with extremist views."
