Advocates see increase in ‘cyberhate’
October 1st, 2009
From USA Today:
Advocacy groups are struggling to counter a growing number of groups on social networking websites that are calling for threats, violence and hatred toward minorities, including people with disabilities.
The Anti-Defamation League, which monitors hate speech on the Web, says complaints are up this year more than 200% through July, to 1,512 complaints.”This whole era of cyberhate is one of the biggest challenges we face,” says Deborah Lauter, civil rights director of the league. “We’ve gotten to a place where we made it unacceptable for haters to hate in the public space.” So they turn to the Web, where they can be anonymous.
The National Down Syndrome Society has responded by creating a new ad campaign, “My Great Story,” to promote positive messages about people with Down syndrome. Hannah Jacobs (above), the mother of a daughter with a disability, searches the web to challenge sites using the word “retard.” She started a 29,000-member Facebook group that urges the site to “stop allowing groups that mock special needs and disabilities.”
Youtube, Google and Facebook do not consider the use of the word “retard” to be hate speech or a violation of their standards.
(Photo from USA Today)
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October 1st, 2009 at 7:51 pm
The mainstream media, to include many social networking websites and search engines, routinely ignore hateful, demeaning, negative, stigmatizing, and outright threatening messages presented through their mediums which are aimed directly at People with Disabilities.
In a world where the Internet and anonymity are tied together out of seeming necessity, perceived protection of privacy is acting as a cloak for those who would perpetuate these very ugly things in society. The backlash, of course, is that these very mediums then become discredited due to their own lack of ability to control such hatred towards one-fifth of America’s population, let alone the more than 650 million people with disabilities around the world.
Facing this dilemma, will the mainstream media, social networking websites, as well as search engines, ‘clean-up their acts?’ Or will they persist into mediocrity where social awareness and respect for the very citizens who use their services are concerned?
The future will tell. If nothing else, these same sources of information on the Internet will experience a marked lack of support from the Disability Community should they persist in the unabashed promotion of such hatred of the Disability Community at large. Perhaps then, when they are struck in the wallet, they will take note.
Thomas C. Weiss.