科技公司拒絕爲極端團體提供服務
For some white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups, operating online has become much harder in the wake of last week's "Unite the Right" protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, that resulted in violent clashes between extremist groups and counterprotesters.
They are being booted off or locked out of their websites. Some can no longer blog. Their electronic payment systems are being canceled. Even their music can’t be heard.
On Thursday, the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi and white supremacist news site and one of the organizers of last weekend’s demonstrations, was reportedly ejected from a Russian internet domain provider that was hosting its site. Its removal came at the request of Russia's internet watchdog, according to the French news agency.
The Daily Stormer had recently turned to the Russian firm after being knocked offline by its U.S. providers, first GoDaddy and then Google. As of Thursday night, the Daily Stormer was not online.
While tech firms have been under government pressure to crack down on state-sponsored terrorist groups, they have mostly resisted efforts to play the censor when it comes to who uses their services. Their terms of use guidelines often outline restrictions, but they have traditionally declined to police offensive content.
That laissez-faire approach appeared to be changing after last weekend’s demonstrations prompted by the rally's violence and the recognition that extremist groups rely on a host of digital services to organize. But the shift comes with great ambivalence.
CloudFlare, which makes websites secure and fast, decided to stop serving the Daily Stormer. But it wasn’t an easy decision, wrote Matthew Prince, the firm’s chief executive. “Someone on our team asked after I announced we were going to terminate the Daily Stormer: ‘Is this the day the internet dies?’”
On Thursday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a noNPRofit that advocates for civil liberties in the digital world and one that has stood with tech companies in its battles with the U.S. government on surveillance, criticized the tech companies’ actions.
“We strongly believe that what GoDaddy, Google and Cloudflare did here was dangerous,” the organization wrote in a statement on its blog.
Tech companies, with few competitors, increasingly have more power to control online speech, EFF wrote, and “the consequences of their decisions have far-reaching impacts on speech around the world."
While Google, GoDaddy and Cloudflare refused to host the Daily Stormer site, other extremist groups and supporters were affected in other ways, such as where they could stay, how they exchanged money and the music they listened to.
Ahead of the protests, Airbnb banned users from staying in Charlottesville if it appeared they were coming for the protests.
PayPal said it does not allow groups such as the Ku Klux Klan or neo-Nazi groups engaged in “activities that promote hate, violence or racial intolerance” to use its service for processing payments. Apple Pay also pulled its services for groups selling far-right merchandise.
Spotify removed “hate bands” from its service.上週末美國維吉尼亞州夏洛茨維爾“團結右翼”的示威遊行引發極端團體和反示威者的暴力衝突後，一些白人至上主義者和新納粹團體在網上的生存空間迅速縮小。
他們被服務商刪除域名，登錄不了自己的網站，有些人不能發表博客。他們的電子支付系統被取消賬號，就連他們的音樂也再也無法被世人聽到。
據報道，上週末示威活動的組織者之一，一個叫“每日風暴”的新納粹和白人至上主義者的新聞網站被俄羅斯一家互聯網域名提供商下線。據法新社報道，該域名提供商是應俄羅斯一個互聯網監督機構的要求採取這一行動的。
每日風暴是因爲被美國服務商狗爹(GoDaddy)和谷歌下線，才於最近轉向這家俄羅斯公司的。截止到星期四晚上，每日風暴的網站仍處於下線狀態。
儘管高科技公司一直受到政府壓力，要求他們打擊國家支持的恐怖團體的活動，但是科技公司在選擇客戶時，一般不太願意扮演審查者的角色。他們在服務指南里經常會列舉一些禁止從事的活動，但是他們往往不願對具有冒犯性的言論進行監管。
上星期夏洛茨維爾暴力衝突發生後，科技公司這種放任自流的態度似乎發生了改變，他們意識到，極端團體要依靠一系列的網上服務來召集人馬。不過，這種轉變也帶來了矛盾。
美國雲火炬公司決定停止爲“每日風暴”提供服務，但是公司首席執行官普林斯說，這不是一個容易的決定。他說：“我宣佈將終止每日風暴合約時，團隊裏有人問我，互聯網是不是就此死亡了呢？”
提倡數字世界公民自由的非營利機構“電子前沿基金會”星期四對這些科技公司的決定提出批評。在科技公司跟美國政府就監管展開的鬥爭中，該基金會始終站在科技公司一邊。
電子前沿基金會在博客上發表聲明說：“我們堅信，狗爹、谷歌和雲火炬的做法是危險的”。
聲明說：“這些科技公司沒有多少競爭對手，他們控制網上言論的權力越來越大，他們的決定對世界各地的言論自由會產生深遠的影響。”
新納粹和白人至上團體的生存在其他領域同樣受到了影響。夏洛茨維爾示威活動前，空中食宿(Airbnb)公司就禁止前來參加示威的人通過他們的平臺在夏洛茨維爾預訂住處。
貝寶(Paypal)表示，不允許提倡仇恨、暴力或種族排斥的三K黨或新納粹團體等組織使用貝寶的支付服務。蘋果支付(Apple Pay)也停止爲出售極右色彩商品的團體提供服務。
流媒體音樂平臺“聲破天(Spotify)”也刪除了服務器上“仇恨樂隊”的賬號。
