tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/new-zealand-mosque-attacks-68294/articlesNew Zealand mosque attacks – The Conversation2019-04-01T20:41:48Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1140022019-04-01T20:41:48Z2019-04-01T20:41:48ZI had a front-row seat to hate and was physically assaulted: The liberal-washing of white nationalism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266873/original/file-20190401-177196-14whb6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An academic expert on Islamophobia attended a 'free-speech' conference in Toronto, where she was assaulted after challenging speakers for promoting hatred against Muslims.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The horror of the New Zealand terror attack that targeted two mosques during Friday congregational prayers and left 50 people dead has raised important questions about the kind of ideas that inspire this senseless violence. In Canada, the 2017 Québec mosque shooting that left six Muslim men dead <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-national-day-of-remembrance-lessons-from-the-quebec-massacre-90520">also forced the question: what drives the hate that leads to white nationalist terror</a>?</p>
<p>Recently I attended a <a href="http://www.cftrl.org/index.html">“free speech” conference</a> on the outskirts of Toronto. In attendance at the event were lawyers from prominent legal firms and other professionals. When I challenged one of the speakers for remarks I felt promoted hatred against Muslims, I was physically assaulted.</p>
<p>I have long been examining the question of what fuels white nationalist hatred by documenting and mapping the “<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/06/groups-spread-hate-islamophobia-industry-170610092856852.html">Islamophobia industry</a>” in Canada. The industry is a constellation of individuals, media outlets, think tanks, politicians and organizations that purvey racism and Islamophobia. These include white nationalist and “alt-right” groups that are proliferating and expanding their reach in Canada from <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2019/03/06/researchers-to-probe-canadas-evolving-far-right-movements.html">upward of 100 groups in 2015 to nearly 300 by 2018</a>.</p>
<p>While the alt-right, neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups are the foot soldiers of the movement, there are other, more covert players that form the <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2004-05-01/soft-power-means-success-world-politics">soft power</a> of this widespread industry. These power brokers use cultural, political and economic ideas to influence, shape and inform white nationalist views. They help circulate bigotry by dressing it up as patriotism and purveying it through “respectable” channels.</p>
<p>I refer to this as the “liberal washing” of white nationalism, where politically camouflaged xenophobic, Islamophobic and racist notions are disguised under the veneer of liberal discourse such as “protecting democracy,” “freedom” and the “rule of law” from what are regarded as illiberal, anti-modern and anti-democratic minorities.</p>
<p>I had a front-row seat to liberal-washed hate messaging at the conference held by <a href="http://www.cftrl.org/index.html">Canadians for the Rule of Law</a>, a registered charity that seeks to challenge “political tribes” and “disruptors” who question the rule of law in Canada.</p>
<h2>Teaching Islamophobic fear and bigotry</h2>
<p>The idea that “Islamists” are infiltrating and imposing shariah law in Canada was a common narrative at this event and disturbingly echoed the views of the New Zealand shooter, whose manifesto spoke of Muslim “invaders” who were corrupting western civilization.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266891/original/file-20190401-177175-vd3944.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266891/original/file-20190401-177175-vd3944.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266891/original/file-20190401-177175-vd3944.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266891/original/file-20190401-177175-vd3944.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266891/original/file-20190401-177175-vd3944.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266891/original/file-20190401-177175-vd3944.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266891/original/file-20190401-177175-vd3944.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters decrying hatred and racism converged around the U.S. after a white supremacist rally that spiraled into deadly violence in Virginia in the summer of 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Anna Reed/Statesman-Journal/AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The vague deployment of the term “Islamist” at this conference reduced a broad political spectrum to a narrow epithet for the violent overthrow of democratic rule to install an Islamic State. <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/news/world/the-muslim-brotherhood-the-new-islamist-bogeyman-in-canada/">The Islamist bogeyman</a> became the dominant representation of Muslims. Fear-mongering about the infiltration of the Muslim Brotherhood in Canada was used as a clarion call to warn of impending threats to Canada’s freedom and democracy from Muslim neighbours, organizations, politicians, Muslim Student Associations and Islamic schools.</p>
<p>Preserving Canadian “values” from the corruption of minorities seems far more reasonable than shouting racist slogans in the street — except this liberal-washing of hate is simply another way of echoing and dog-whistling white nationalist, xenophobic ideals by masquerading them through more “civil” and “polite” discourse.</p>
<p>One of the supporting organizations of the conference was Act For Canada, an offshoot of Act For America, one of the most prominent anti-Muslim groups in the United States. <a href="https://www.actforcanada.ca/">Their website</a> outlines their goals:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“ACT! For Canada is a forum for citizens concerned about the triumphalist brand of Islam that seeks to erode our cherished western principles of free speech and equality with the goal of eventual Islamic supremacy in the West ….”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.cftrl.org/conference.html">Other groups supporting the conference</a> included conservative media outlet TAG TV, the Bangladeshi Minority Rights group, B’nai Brith and several pro-Zionist groups that equate criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic and “illegal.” The conference also received funding from <a href="https://www.meforum.org/about">Daniel Pipe’s Middle East Forum</a> think tank that “protects western values from Middle Eastern threats” and “emphasizes the danger of lawful Islamism.”</p>
<h2>A front row seat to hate</h2>
<p>To set the tone for the day, conference organizers began with a condemnation of the New Zealand terror attack. Attendees were asked to rise for a moment of silence. It turns out the silence was not to commemorate the victims of this heinous hate crime, but rather to honour “free speech.”</p>
<p>I spent a long day of being a fly on the wall at this conference, hearing non-stop pro-Zionist rhetoric denying that Israel was oppressing Palestinians and consuming a steady diet of Islamophobic bigotry. Along with this came calls for preserving “Judeo-Christian democracy,” protecting against multiculturalism and the need to build a “<a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/cfr/international/slot1_032803.html?_r=0">coalition of the willing</a>,” (the term used by George W. Bush to refer to countries who supported militarily or politically the 2003 U.S-led invasion of Iraq), to challenge “Islamists” and preserve the rule of law in Canada.</p>
<p>Most egregiously, in one session I attended, panellists repeatedly referred to the Al Noor mosque in New Zealand where the terror attack occurred as a “known site of radicalization” without citing any evidence. They complained the media was not publicizing this information. Despite their caution to say this was not a justification for the shootings, I was concerned their salacious and unfounded claim against the Al Noor mosque created further fear and hatred against Muslims.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266892/original/file-20190401-177181-1sfha5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266892/original/file-20190401-177181-1sfha5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266892/original/file-20190401-177181-1sfha5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266892/original/file-20190401-177181-1sfha5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266892/original/file-20190401-177181-1sfha5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266892/original/file-20190401-177181-1sfha5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266892/original/file-20190401-177181-1sfha5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mourners pay their respects at a makeshift memorial near the Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 16, 2019, after a 28-year-old white supremacist was accused in mass shootings at the mosque that left 50 people dead.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Vincent Thian)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I finally decided to intervene.</p>
<p>One of the panellists was Christine Douglass-Williams, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/12/21/board-member-of-anti-racism-agency-fired-amid-accusations-of-islamophobic-commentary.html">who in 2017 was removed from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation for remarks described by non-profit organizations as Islamophobic.</a> </p>
<p>I asked her about a speech she made in Iceland in which she <a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/05/christine-williams-my-personal-warning-to-icelanders">warned Icelanders about the “Islamicist supremacist incursion into their country:</a>”</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Islamic supremacists will smile at you and invite you to their gatherings, make you feel loved and welcomed but they do it to deceive you and take over you, your land, and your freedoms …Many friendly, seemingly ‘moderate’ Muslims are deceiving you …”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I asked her what her warning was for Canadians, given that’s what she told Icelanders.</p>
<h2>Not so free speech</h2>
<p>Douglass-Williams became defensive and said she was misquoted. I was paraphrasing, but I told her I took the information directly from an article she wrote. The moderator became angry and told me I couldn’t speak anymore. He told me to leave.</p>
<p>I protested and said I was trying to engage in a dialogue, to exercise my free speech rights, which this conference purported to uphold. The moderator, who is an “ethicist,” informed me I was now trespassing and had to leave.</p>
<p>Did I breach conference decorum by being unwilling to be silenced? Yes. Did they have a right to ask me to leave because I spoke after being told to be quiet? Technically, yes. I did not plan to interrupt the far-right echo chamber, but when I did intervene in the discussion, I realized it was likely I’d be asked to leave because of my views. And I was willing to do so peacefully. But I was not prepared for what happened next.</p>
<p>I stood up voluntarily to leave as instructed by the moderator. But I made one final comment: I said their thinly veiled white supremacist views and Islamophobic fear-mongering is the kind of rhetoric that inspires white nationalist terror.</p>
<p>That comment caused a commotion.</p>
<p>A man from the audience grabbed me and pulled me from the room, twisting my arm with force. I shouted to the silent onlookers: “This man is hurting me! He has no right to touch me!”</p>
<p>A man in the audience shouted back: “You are lucky to even be in this country!”</p>
<p>During this incident, not one person said or did anything. All cellphones, by order of the conference, were surrendered so no one took videos of the incident. I had to wait to call the police until afterwards.</p>
<p>As the man was physically accosting me, I looked over my shoulder to the crowd in the room. They did not look like Proud Boys wearing Doc Martens; they were mainly white seniors that included a retired school psychologist, a teacher and lawyers dressed in suits and ties. Others wore leisurewear, the kind worn on a winter cruise.</p>
<p>One of the people in the room was a former Toronto police officer and “security expert.” I thought he might see the danger in the situation and stop it, so I appealed to him: “You are a former police officer and I’m telling you this man is assaulting and hurting me!”</p>
<p>He stared at me and said nothing. Ironically, all of this occurred during a panel about public safety and upholding “the rule of law.” No amount of “liberal washing” will clean this dirty laundry.</p>
<p><strong>Editor’s Note</strong>: <em>Prior to publishing this article, The Conversation Canada asked the organizer of the conference, Canadians for the Rule of Law, why Jasmin Zine was forcibly removed from the event she attended. Donald Carr, president of Canadians for the Rule of Law, replied in an email that Zine “did not conform to clearly stated ‘rules’ relating to asking questions of the panellists.” Carr said Zine was asked to surrender the microphone after asking her question and that conference organizers then considered her to be a “trespasser on private property” and asked the conference’s private security firm to escort her out. Carr admitted an “unknown individual from the audience seized the professor to take her out, but on request, released her” and a security officer escorted Zine to the lobby of the building. Carr said a police officer subsequently interviewed several people and told conference staff that there “had been no illegal action.” Zine has since received an email from the investigating officer from York Regional Police who indicated that people at the conference he spoke to “were not very forthcoming with information about the suspect.” The officer said conference organizers told him the suspect was selling books at the conference, but they didn’t have any contact information for him. “I’m sorry I could not find the suspect and give you anymore closure in this upsetting matter,” the officer concluded.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114002/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmin Zine receives funding from the Social Sciences Research and Humanities Council</span></em></p>Covert power brokers are using cultural, political and economic ideas to influence, shape and inform white nationalist views. They help circulate bigotry by dressing it up as patriotism.Jasmin Zine, Professor of Sociology, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1140482019-03-26T10:38:10Z2019-03-26T10:38:10ZWhy the next terror manifesto could be even harder to track<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265695/original/file-20190325-36270-q4akag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C167%2C3600%2C2527&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's difficult to track the spread of digital materials.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/people-networking-leader-197722088">bluebay/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Just before his shooting spree at two Christchurch, New Zealand mosques, the alleged mass murderer posted a hate-filled manifesto on several file-sharing sites, and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/new-zealand-shooting-death-toll-rises-50-attack-mosque-n984066">emailed the document to at least 30 people</a>, including New Zealand’s prime minister. He also <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12213056">posted on several social media sites</a> links to the manifesto and instructions on how to find his Facebook profile to watch an upcoming video. The video turned out to be a 17-minute Facebook livestream of preparing for and carrying out the first attack on March 15. In his posts, the accused killer urged people to make copies of the manifesto and the video, and share them around the internet.</p>
<p>On March 23, the New Zealand government <a href="https://www.classificationoffice.govt.nz/news/latest-news/christchurch-attacks-press-releases/#christchurch-attack-publication-the-great-replacement-classified-objectionable">banned possession and sharing of the manifesto</a>, and shortly thereafter <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/world/asia/new-zealand-attacks-social-media.html">arrested at least two people</a> for having shared the video. By then, the original manifesto document and video file had long since been removed from the platforms where they were first posted. Yet plenty of people appear to have taken the shooter’s advice, making copies and spreading them widely. </p>
<p>As part of my <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lKbka1UAAAAJ&hl=en">ongoing research into extremism</a> on social media – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01129-1_25">particularly anti-Muslim sentiment</a> – I was interested in how other right-wing extremists would use the manifesto. Would they know that companies would seek to identify it on their sites and delete it? How would they try to evade that detection, and how would they share the files around the web? I wanted to see if computer science techniques could help me track the documents as they spread. What I learned suggests it may become even harder to fight hate online in the future.</p>
<h2>To catch a file</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265693/original/file-20190325-36264-2j36ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265693/original/file-20190325-36264-2j36ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265693/original/file-20190325-36264-2j36ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265693/original/file-20190325-36264-2j36ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265693/original/file-20190325-36264-2j36ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265693/original/file-20190325-36264-2j36ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265693/original/file-20190325-36264-2j36ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265693/original/file-20190325-36264-2j36ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What’s a hapax legomenon?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/katexic/22048430801">Katexic Clipping Newsletter/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To find as many different versions of the manifesto as possible, I chose an unusual keyphrase, called a “<a href="https://mentalfloss.com/article/27617/elusive-hapax-legomenon">hapax legomenon</a>” in computational linguistics: a set of words that would only be found in the manifesto and nowhere else. For example, Google-searching the phrase “Schtitt uses an unamplified bullhorn” reveals that this phrase is used only in David Foster Wallace’s novel “<a href="https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/david-foster-wallace/infinite-jest/9780316920049/">Infinite Jest</a>” and nowhere else online (until now).</p>
<p>A few minutes of Google-searching for a hapax from the manifesto (which I’m intentionally not revealing) found copies of the document in Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF formats on dozens of file-sharing services, including DocDroid, DocumentCloud, Scribd, Mega and Dropbox. The file had been uploaded to blogs hosted on Wordpress and <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12214017">attached to message boards like Kiwi Farms</a>. I also found numerous broken links to files that had been uploaded and quickly deleted, like the original versions that the author had uploaded to Mediafire and Zippyshare.</p>
<p>To determine whether all the files were the same, I used a common file-identification technique, generating a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checksum">checksum</a>, or cryptographic hash, for each manifesto document. A hash is a mathematical description of a file. If two files are identical, their hashes will match. If they are different, they will produce different hashes. After reviewing the file hashes, it became clear that there were only a few main versions of the manifesto, and most of the rest of the files circulating around were copies of them. </p>
<p>A hash can only reveal that the files are different, not how or why they are different. Within the different versions of the manifesto files, I found very few instances where entirely new content was added. I did find a few versions that had color graphics and new cover art added, but the text content itself was left largely unchanged. Most of the differences between the originals could be chalked up to the different fonts and paper sizes set as defaults on the computer of whoever created the copies. Some of the versions also had slightly different line spacing, perhaps introduced as the file was converted from Word to PDF.</p>
<p>The video file was another story. At least one person who watched the Facebook video made a copy of it, and that original video was subsequently compressed, edited, restreamed and reformatted until <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/03/facebook-youtube-new-zealand-tragedy-video/585418/">at least 800 different versions</a> were circulating. </p>
<p>Any change to a file – even a small one like adding a single letter to the manifesto or one extra second of video – will result in an entirely different file hash. All those changes made my analysis of the spread of these artifacts difficult – and also complicated social media companies’ efforts to rid the internet of them. </p>
<p>Facebook and YouTube <a href="https://qz.com/1574293/facebook-and-twitter-couldnt-handle-the-new-zealand-shooting/">used some form of hash-matching</a> to block most of the video upload attempts. But with all those changes – and the resulting entirely new hashes – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/facebook-removed-15-million-videos-of-the-christchurch-attacks-within-24-hours--and-there-were-still-many-more/2019/03/17/fe3124b2-4898-11e9-b871-978e5c757325_story.html">300,000 copies of the video escaped hash-based detection</a> at Facebook. Google also <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/eve9ke/internal-google-email-christchurch-content-moderation-manifesto">lamented the difficulty</a> of detecting tiny text changes in such a lengthy manifesto. </p>
<h2>More tech, more problems</h2>
<p>Despite the internet companies’ claims that these <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/heres-how-facebook-uses-artificial-intelligence-to-take-down-abusive-posts-f8/">problems will disappear as artificial intelligence matures</a>, a collection of “<a href="https://hopenothate.com/2018/11/04/alt-tech-far-right-safe-spaces-online/">alt-tech</a>” companies are working to ensure that hate-fueled artifacts like the manifesto and video can spread unbidden.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rob-monster-epik-gab-neo-nazi_us_5c17bb29e4b05d7e5d846f72">Rob Monster</a>, CEO of a company called Epik, has created a suite of software services that support <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/01/11/problem-epik-proportions">a broad collection of hate sites</a>. Epik provides domain services for Gab, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/how-right-wing-social-media-site-gab-got-back-online/">an online platform favored by violent extremists</a> like the accused Pittsburgh synagogue shooter, and <a href="https://www.columbian.com/news/2019/feb/15/epik-buys-vancouver-based-bitmitigate/">the company recently acquired BitMitigate</a>, which offers protection against online attacks to neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8CMxDNuuAiQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An introduction to IPFS.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Just 24 hours after the mosque attacks, Monster explained on Gab that he shared the manifesto and video file onto IPFS, or the “<a href="https://hackernoon.com/a-beginners-guide-to-ipfs-20673fedd3f">Interplanetary File System</a>,” a decentralized peer-to-peer file sharing network. Files on IPFS are split into many pieces, each distributed among many participants on the network, making the removal of a file nearly impossible. IPFS had previously been a niche technology, <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/43bnzd/neo-nazis-propaganda-decentralized-weev">relatively unknown even among extremists</a>. Now, calling IPFS a “crazy clever technology” that makes files “effectively uncensorable,” Monster reassured Gab users that he was also developing software to make IPFS “easy for anyone … with no technical skills required.”</p>
<h2>A shift in tactics</h2>
<p>As in-person hate groups were <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/seeking-justice/case-docket/donald-v-united-klans-america">sued into obscurity in the 1980s</a>, extremism went underground. But with the advent of the commercial internet, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-online-equivalent-of-a-burning-cross-83185">hate groups quickly moved online</a>, and eventually onto social media. The New Zealand attacker was part of a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/technology/facebook-youtube-christchurch-shooting.html">far-right social media “meme” culture</a>, where angry men (<a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10125/59663">and some women</a>) justify their grievances with violent, hateful rhetoric.</p>
<p>Widespread adoption of artificial intelligence on platforms and decentralized tools like IPFS will mean that the online hate landscape will change once again. Combating online extremism in the future may be less about “<a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a3y3vk/reddit-is-reeling-from-a-massive-meme-war">meme wars</a>” and user-banning, or “<a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/bjbp9d/do-social-media-bans-work">de-platforming</a>,” and could instead look like the <a href="https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/09/12/cybersecurity_as_attack-defense_113796.html">attack-and-defend</a>, cat-and-mouse technical one-upsmanship that has defined the cybersecurity industry since the 1980s. </p>
<p>No matter what technical challenges come up, one fact never changes: The world will always need more good, smart people working to counter hate than there are promoting it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114048/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan Squire does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Social media companies struggle to identify and remove hate speech when it’s posted. What can computer science reveal about how hate-filled texts and videos spread online?Megan Squire, Professor of Computer Science, Elon UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1137132019-03-25T22:23:46Z2019-03-25T22:23:46ZThe hypocritical media coverage of the New Zealand terror attacks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264891/original/file-20190320-93063-11deph5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mourners carry the body of a victim of the New Zealand mosque shootings for a burial in Christchurch on March 20, 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mark Baker)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Humanity has been shocked by the recent terrorist attack on two mosques in New Zealand that killed at least <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/16/asia/christchurch-new-zealand-mosque-shooting-latest/index.html">50 people and left 50 wounded</a>. </p>
<p>The alleged perpetrator, who spewed his hatred of Muslim immigrants in an online manifesto, called U.S. President Donald Trump a “symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose” and denounced the “decaying” culture of the white, European, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/zealand-mosques-attack-suspect-praised-trump-manifesto-190315100143150.html">Western world</a>. </p>
<p>Although the carnage was condemned extensively across geographical borders, some reporting in England and Canada has been troubling.</p>
<p>For example, there has been the seeming reluctance of some coverage to use the label “terrorist” for the shooter, and the way the perpetrator and victims have been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/06/18/call-the-charleston-church-shooting-what-it-is-terrorism/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e7370f79b872">characterized in this and other similar events</a>.</p>
<p>As a PhD candidate, I look at how media outlets cover and translate news from the Middle East. In doing this, I explore how different representations of people emerge during news production and translation. </p>
<p>As the news of the shootings in New Zealand quickly unfolded, I took note of the way the event was covered in news media and how the coverage was being discussed on social media. </p>
<h2>A mass killer also an angelic boy?</h2>
<p>Although the <em>Daily Mirror</em> headline called the alleged shooter an “evil far-right mass killer,” <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/new-zealand-shooting-brenton-tarrant-14142703">the body of the text and photo tell a different story</a>. The report says he was an “angelic boy who former associates revealed was a likeable and dedicated personal trainer running free athletic programmes for kids.” </p>
<p>Is that the best descriptor of a man who opened fire in two mosques as people prayed? </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1108614128795570176"}"></div></p>
<p><a href="https://www.dailysabah.com/europe/2019/03/16/daily-mirror-harshly-criticized-for-whitewashing-new-zealand-terrorist">The <em>Mirror</em> was heavily critiqued on social media</a>, as reported in <em>the Daily Sabah</em>. Many cited its past reporting on the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting that included the following headline: “ISIS maniac kills 50 in gay club.” </p>
<p>Although both acts of terror share a lot in common, the <em>Daily Mirror</em> portrayed the New Zealand mosque attacker as a onetime sweet innocent pure child, while the Orlando shooter was a demonic Islamic extremist.</p>
<p>The <em>Daily Mail</em> described the alleged terrorist as a “<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6812527/Inside-life-New-Zealands-worst-terrorist.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490">little blond boy</a>” whose father died of cancer. Similarly, the <em>Australian Courier Mail</em> called the shooter a “working-class madman.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265405/original/file-20190323-36252-ie531c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265405/original/file-20190323-36252-ie531c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265405/original/file-20190323-36252-ie531c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265405/original/file-20190323-36252-ie531c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265405/original/file-20190323-36252-ie531c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265405/original/file-20190323-36252-ie531c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265405/original/file-20190323-36252-ie531c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Courier Mail front page: ‘Working class madman’</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Reporting on such tragic attack using phrases like “working-class madman,” “blond boy” and “angelic boy” masks the Islamophobic motives of the accused. The short-hand also minimizes his association to white supremacy and right-wing extremism.</p>
<h2>A terrorist attack?</h2>
<p>The attack was immediately labelled by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/new-zealand-shooting-live-updates/2019/03/17/21bb0634-48ec-11e9-8cfc-2c5d0999c21e_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ad54609709b3">terrorism</a>.” But an informal and initial examination of reports by <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=Christchurch+shooting&filter=news&suggid=">the BBC</a> and, in Canada, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/tag/new-zealand/">Global News</a> and <a href="https://ici.radio-canada.ca/dossier/1002338/attentat-christchurch-nouvelle-zelande">Ici Radio Canada,</a> indicates that journalists at those news organizations did not use that term. </p>
<p>Terrorist is a label that jumps easily into headlines and news reports when the perpetrator <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/mass-murder-vs-terrorism-1.4344766">is Muslim</a>, but <a href="https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/3k9k8v/why-dont-we-ever-call-white-extremists-terrorists">is often handled with caution or tossed out entirely when the perpetrator is white</a>. </p>
<p>BBC’s editorial guidelines with respect to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidelines/impartiality">impartiality</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidance/terrorism-language/guidance-full">terrorism coverage</a> didn’t seem to be followed. Latifa Akay, a director at a U.K.-based charity group, wrote in the <em>Guardian</em> about an interview she did with BBC TV two days after the mosque murders. In the interview, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/18/islamist-violence-christchurch-white-supremacy">BBC host</a> Shaun Dominic Ley asked Akay whether she thought mainstream Muslim communities in the U.K. do enough to condemn Islamist extremism. Akay wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“…somehow it felt appropriate for the presenter to re-establish an order — of Muslims as the aggressor and never simply a worthy victim. Where is the dignity of the dead, of the grieving?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The interviewer’s question suggests that Islamist terrorism is an abominable violence, but anti-Muslim terrorism is partially instigated by Muslim communities. </p>
<p>The host relied on the most distorted interpretation of Islam, and by doing so implied that to be a Muslim was a significant factor in the actions of a far-right terrorist.</p>
<h2>Canadian narratives</h2>
<p>Last year in Canada, after an attack with a vehicle was committed outside a football stadium in Edmonton by a Somali refugee in which five people were injured, Global News and Ici Radio Canada immediately called the incident “<a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3778722/edmonton-terror-attacks-police-stabbed-u-haul-rampage/">Edmonton terror attacks</a>”, “<a href="https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1059072/attaque-terroriste-edmonton-rassemblement-veillee">Attaque terroriste: Edmonton défie la haine</a> and ”<a href="https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1059062/attaque-terroriste-edmonton-etat-islamique-radicalisation-analyse">Attaque terroriste : pourquoi Edmonton</a>?“</p>
<p><a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2928138">A study by scholars at the University of Alabama and Georgia State University</a> shows that terrorist attacks committed by Muslim extremists receive 357 per cent more U.S. media coverage than those committed by non-Muslims. In Canada, a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9090274">study by Azeezah Kanji, the director of programming at Toronto’s Noor Cultural Centre in the open access journal, <em>Religions</em></a>, revealed that acts of violence perpetrated by Muslims received 1.5 times more coverage, on average, than those by non-Muslim ones. Thwarted Muslim plots received five times more coverage. </p>
<p><a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/271005/pdf">Research</a> by communication scholar Wendy Naava Smolash compared media coverage of two high-profile anti-terrorism cases in Canada. Smolash found that the <em>Globe and Mail</em> and the <em>National Post</em> used racialized signs of otherness to characterize the incident and people involved. This type of narrative raises concerns on how news media may normalize state violence against Muslims and racialized minorities. </p>
<p>Such coverage reinforces specific narratives about what and who should be feared the most.</p>
<p>This media stigma and bias have real and devastating impacts on the daily lives of Muslims.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/islamophobia-and-media-stigma-is-having-real-effects-on-muslim-mothers-in-maternity-services-101768">Islamophobia and media stigma is having real effects on Muslim mothers in maternity services</a>
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<p>When white individuals commit horrendous acts, it seems news outlets portray them as people deserving <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/humanise-victims-white-supremacist-killed-190316052155064.html">of humanity</a>. They are portrayed with complicated personalities: the little "angel” who went astray even after being revealed as a vicious and violent racist. </p>
<p>Those who share the same background as the alleged gunman — white and male — do not have to be anxious about the backlash against their community; they will not be asked to apologize for the unhinged among them; the will not worry about the looks they’ll get out in public.</p>
<p>But in the fallout of New Zealand, Muslims will have to contend with that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113713/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Houssem Ben Lazreg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the news of the shootings in New Zealand quickly unfolded, a researcher took note of the way the event was covered in news media and how the coverage was being discussed on social media.Houssem Ben Lazreg, PhD Candidate in Modern Languages and Cultural Studies/ Associate Instructor, University of AlbertaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.