"Hactivism" Must Stop

[mea culpa <jericho () DIMENSIONAL COM>]

http://www.alternet.org/PublicArchive/Ladd917.html

"Hactivism" Must Stop
Donna Ladd, Colorado Springs Independent

Visited www.kkk.com in the last few days?

If so, you might have been surprised. The usually caustic, whites-'r'-us
content was gone; instead, the URL linked to Hatewatch.org, a prominent
bigotry-monitoring site.

The KKK site was hacked Sept. 4, with visitors redirected to Hatewatch
where, presumably, they'd be convinced to give up their repugnant ways.
This was the second such hate hack in recent weeks. Two weeks before,
Godhatesfags.com, the site of strident gay enemy Fred Phelps, was
redirected by an anonymous hacker to a young gay man who then used it to
pull visitors to his site, Godlovesfags.com.

"Tee, hee," you might respond. "Serves the bigots rights."

Wrong. These hacks, although perhaps inspired by good intentions, must
stop. You can't censor hate;  you must cure it. There's a huge difference.
And no one argues that better than the man on the receiving end of the
latest hacker bequest.

"Hatewatch has not nor ever will condone such behavior," says David
Goldman, the Massachusetts brain behind Hatewatch.org. "Not only is this
type of action illegal but it has the effect of calling into question the
legitimacy of the online civil rights movement as a whole."

Goldman, who fights to overcome hate and bigotry on a daily basis by
exposing it, warns well-meaning computer geeks against using censorship
tactics which he calls "vandalism" -- to shut down speech they don't agree
with, even for a few days. It won't work, and it sets a dangerous
precedent, he says.

[snip..]

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