Major tech firms are denying services to white supremacists in response to Charlottesville violence. The crackdown is a rare departure for an industry that has faced criticism for not doing enough to block hate speech.
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Social media networks Twitter and LinkedIn, music service Spotify and security firm Cloudflare have become the latest internet firms to cut off services to hate groups or remove hate speech.
They join Google's parent company Alphabet, Facebook and domain provider GoDaddy, which have already taken steps to block groups propagating hatred.
'Kicked off the net'
Cloudflare, which protects some 6 million websites from hacking and other such attacks, on Wednesday dropped coverage of the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, after it mocked the victim of a Charlottesville car attack.
"I woke up this morning in a bad mood and decided to kick them off the internet," Cloudflare founder and Chief Executive Matthew Prince said in an email to employees. "Like a lot of people, we've felt angry at these hateful people for a long time."
The access to the website has been sporadic since Monday after GoDaddy and Google Domains, a unit of Alphabet, refused to serve the website. Google said the website violated its terms of service.
Daily Stormer made a brief comeback on Wednesday with a Russian domain name and registration. But the site is no longer accessible at that .ru address.
Akexander Zharov, the head of Russia's federal communications watchdog Roskomnadzor, said in a statement on Thursday that the organization had called on the domain registrar Ru-center to drop the Daily Stormer's site access "as soon as possible."
The website "promotes neo-Nazi ideology and fuels racist, nationalist and other types of hatred," Zharov added.
Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin responded to the dropped domain hosting with defiance. "Clearly, the powers that be believe that they have the ability to simply kick me off the internet," Anglin said, also telling his supporters that his website would be back soon.
United against neo-Nazis
Twitter on Wednesday suspended accounts linked to Daily Stormer, while LinkedIn suspended a page devoted to the website.
Facebook has been taking down pages linked to hate groups in recent days.Image: Reuters/T. White
Facebook has also been taking down several pages linked to hate speech or hate groups in the past few days, including the event page that was used to promote and organize the "Unite the Right" rally.
"With the potential for more rallies, we're watching the situation closely and will take down threats of physical harm," CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on Wednesday.
One of the people on the receiving end of Facebook's actions was Chris Cantwell, a web commentator who has described himself as a white nationalist. Cantwell's YouTube account also appeared to have been terminated.
Reddit has removed one of its discussion communities that supported the Unite the Right rally. It said it would ban users who incite violence.
Sweden-based Spotify is in the process removing the racist "hate bands" flagged by the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes in the US.
cmb, ap/sms (Reuters, AP)
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Free speech or illegal content?
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Social media law
After a public debate in Germany, a new law on social media came into effect in October. The legislation imposes heavy fines on social media companies, such as Facebook, for failing to take down posts containing hate speech. Facebook and other social media companies have complained about the law, saying that harsh rules might lead to unnecessary censorship.
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Right to be forgotten
In 2014, the European Court of Justice ruled that European citizens had the right to request search engines, such as Google and Bing, remove "inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant or excessive" search results linked to their name. Although Google has complied with the ruling, it has done so reluctantly, warning that it could make the internet as "free as the world's least free place."
Image: picture-alliance/ROPI/Eidon/Scavuzzo
Blanket ban
In May 2017, Ukraine imposed sanctions on Russian social media platforms and web services. The blanket ban affected millions of Ukrainian citizens, many of whom were anxious about their data. The move prompted young Ukrainians to protest on the streets, calling for the government to reinstate access to platforms that included VKontakte (VK), Russia's largest social network.
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Safe Harbor
In 2015, the European Court of Justice ruled that Safe Harbor, a 15-year-old pact between the US and EU that allowed the transfer of personal data without prior approval, was effectively invalid. Austrian law student Max Schrems launched the legal proceedings against Facebook in response to revelations made by former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, Edward Snowden.
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Regulation
In China, the use of social media is highly regulated by the government. Beijing has effectively blocked access to thousands of websites and platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Instead, China offers its citizens access to local social media platforms, such as Weibo and WeChat, which boast hundreds of millions of monthly users.
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Twitter bans Russia-linked accounts
Many politicians and media outlets blame Russia's influence for Donald Trump's election victory in 2016. Moscow reportedly used Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Instagram to shape public opinion on key issues. In October 2017, Twitter suspended over 2,750 accounts due to alleged Russian propaganda. The platform also banned ads from RT (formerly Russia Today) and the Sputnik news agency.
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Facebook announces propaganda-linked tool
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