A recent Southern Poverty Law Center support highlighted the fact that many tech companies extend products and services to known hate groups like VDARE, Identity Evropa, White Aryan Resistance, and ACT for America. Payment processors, hosting services, domain registrars, and companies that serve web advertising have no problem putting their names behind hate.
It's tech for the tech industry to commit to using a well-sourced and regularly-updated list of hate groups to exclude organizations that want to use their services to promote hateful activity. The problem of hate speech online is complex and demands thoughtful, serious attention, and a refusal to step up and take responsibility for where products and services are used reflects poorly on the tech industry.
Tech giants play an active role in society and politics, whether they're donating to campaigns, hosting activities on their platforms, or encouraging the development and use of technical fixes to vexing social problems. It's time for the industry to be accountable to itself, and to back stated values — like Facebook's "Build Social Value" — with meaningful action.
Tell companies like Google, PayPal, Stripe, Square, Facebook, Twitter, Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Tucows, Dreamhost, and Network Solutions that you don't want them hosting known, documented groups on their platforms!
Photo credit: Mike Davis
