When Will Twitter Ban White Nationalists? Civil Rights Leaders Urge the Site to Take Action

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As the two-year anniversary of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville approaches, civil rights and digital activists say Twitter has not done nearly enough to prevent white nationalists from spreading hate speech online. Twitter is facing increased pressure to take action following the mass shooting in El Paso, where the shooter—who appeared to embrace white nationalism—killed 22 people and injured dozens more. Patrick Crusius shared his anti-immigrant screed on the online message board 8chan. Following the shooting, Twitter users urged the tech company to also ban 8chan's verified account from its platform, using the hashtag "untwitter8chan." Some activists say Twitter is responsible for allowing far-right actors to spread violent ideologies on its platform.

"This is a sophisticated and organized international network designed to bring about white ethnostates," said Jessica J. González, the vice president of strategy and senior counsel at Free Press and co-founder of the Change the Terms coalition. There's been "incomprehensible levels of white supremacist and misogynist violence," in the two years since the 2017 rally, said González, adding that it's time for tech companies to take the steps to curb the spread of that violence online.


When Will Twitter Ban White Nationalists? Civil Rights Leaders Urge the Site to Take Action