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"Hactivism" Must Stop
From: mea culpa <jericho () DIMENSIONAL COM>
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1999 15:47:58 -0600
http://www.alternet.org/PublicArchive/Ladd917.html "Hactivism" Must Stop Donna Ladd, Colorado Springs Independent Visited www.kkk.com in the last few days? If so, you might have been surprised. The usually caustic, whites-'r'-us content was gone; instead, the URL linked to Hatewatch.org, a prominent bigotry-monitoring site. The KKK site was hacked Sept. 4, with visitors redirected to Hatewatch where, presumably, they'd be convinced to give up their repugnant ways. This was the second such hate hack in recent weeks. Two weeks before, Godhatesfags.com, the site of strident gay enemy Fred Phelps, was redirected by an anonymous hacker to a young gay man who then used it to pull visitors to his site, Godlovesfags.com. "Tee, hee," you might respond. "Serves the bigots rights." Wrong. These hacks, although perhaps inspired by good intentions, must stop. You can't censor hate; you must cure it. There's a huge difference. And no one argues that better than the man on the receiving end of the latest hacker bequest. "Hatewatch has not nor ever will condone such behavior," says David Goldman, the Massachusetts brain behind Hatewatch.org. "Not only is this type of action illegal but it has the effect of calling into question the legitimacy of the online civil rights movement as a whole." Goldman, who fights to overcome hate and bigotry on a daily basis by exposing it, warns well-meaning computer geeks against using censorship tactics which he calls "vandalism" -- to shut down speech they don't agree with, even for a few days. It won't work, and it sets a dangerous precedent, he says. [snip..] ISN is sponsored by Security-Focus.COM
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