Internet Hate Groups

¶ … Nijole V. Benokratis, Social Identity The Christian Identity Movement Technology made it possible for people to interact in new and interactive ways. However, many are inclined to use these mediums as a means to project their hatred toward other people or groups. These people can go as far as to organize hate groups meant to discriminate those particular people or communities.

While the authorities struggle to address this issue by investing as many resources as possible, conditions are critical as a consequence of the fact that it is especially easy for one to create and support an internet hate group. The internet provides hate groups with the ability to support each-other and makes it possible for individuals who are part of these groups to organize thoughts and strategies meant to support discrimination toward the people or communities they are interested in differentiating.

The Christian Identity Movement is a good example of an organized hate group that uses the internet as a tool to discriminate others. "The Christian Identity movement is a movement of many extremely conservative Christian churches and religious organizations, extreme right wing political groups and survival groups." (CHRISTIAN IDENTITY MOVEMENT) The Christian Identity movement seized the opportunity to use the internet as a tool to influence others to share its ideology.

By addressing individuals who it considered likely to support its principles, the group practically created a medium that it could use with the purpose of recruiting as many supporters as possible. Extremist religious groups are a central element when considering internet hate groups. The fact that these people hide behind their internet users makes it possible for them to put across more extremist behaviours than they would put across in normal life.

The online environment works perfectly when considering individuals wanting to spread their hate ideology in mediums they would otherwise have difficulty accessing. Such environments practically take communication and recruitment to a whole new level -- one in which hate is propagated at a much faster speed and where it effectively reaches the targets it needs to reach. Individuals using the internet as a medium to express their hate and to encourage others to join them have actually emphasized the degree to which the online environment empowers them.

The Christian Identity Movement uses the internet with the intention to bring its members closer to each-other and thus become a much more effective weapon as a consequence of its use of technology.