The vast majority of Americans oppose the very existence of organized hate groups, and refute their beliefs.  However, while other countries (Canada, Germany, France) are working to ban, block and prosecute Internet hate sites, various Internet polls suggests that Americans are fairly evenly split with regard to the rights of organized hate groups to occupy space on the world wide web (see below).  One does not have to search long and hard to find religious hatred, racial/ethnic hatred, immigrant hatred, sexual orientation hatred, gender hatred, and even disability hatred sites on Internet sites hosted by American ISP’s.  In fact, hosting of foreign hate sites on American servers is a prosecutorial nightmare for other countries.  The majority of hate sites are run by militia, neo-Nazi and white supremacy groups (often behind the facade of Christian groups).

Despite continued suggestions that the number of hate groups on the Internet is continuing to grow, this author believes that many hate groups have run into the proverbial brick wall with regard to major internet service providers.  The number of organized hate sites on the Internet appeared to grow from 1 in 1995, to as many as a few thousand by the year 2000.  From 1995 until 1999, ISP’s were in the “damned if they did and damned if they didn’t position.”  ISP’s feared civil litigation if they refused webspace to hate groups and ISP’s feared criminal prosecution if national or international hate laws found ISP’s criminally responsible for threatening messages on hate group sites hosted on their servers.  The ultimate prosecution of Richard Machado (it took 2 trials) for sending anti-Asian hate e-mails to fellow students at UC Irvine in 1998 signaled the start of a trend that would dramatically decrease the spread of electronic hate messages.

An extensive list of hate sites composed in 1999 (http://www.bcpl.net/~rfrankli/hatedir99.htm#ARYANDATE) shows that at one time, most major Internet carriers did, in fact, provide web space to a host of hate groups.  However, growing social and legal pressure, to an extent initiated by Orin Hatch’s Senate Judiciary Committee review of hate sites at the close of the 90’s, clarified boundaries between hate speech and hate crime.  Messages that can be interpreted as threatening to some groups may demonstrate a degree of criminal intent.  As a result, it has become increasingly difficult for organized hate sites to obtain webspace from major ISP’s, including AOL, Earthlink/Mindspring, ATT, Delphi, Bellsouth, Tripod, USInternet, Quiknet, NetQuest and Angelfire.  By the same token, organized hate groups sometimes used messages posted by newer and less Internet savvy “anti-hate group” sites to have the “anti-hate group” sites closed (keep in mind that anti-hate groups have not been around as long as some of the hate groups). 

A number of high profile hate groups have developed flashy websites with catchy slogans, music videos, news sections, online gift shops, video games, crossword puzzles, chat rooms, asynchronous discussion boards, kids pages, guest books and dating services (yes, dating services).  The only thing lacking on these sites is advertisers.  While a number of authors contend that persons running hate sites work diligently to maintain their anonymity, this author has not found that to be the case at all.  Hate site organizers often appear comfortable in revealing their identity, they openly advertise upcoming events (in fact, most hate sites have special events sections), and they welcome e-mail responses.  All of the above give an air of legitimacy to such sites and make it easier, particularly for young persons, to be taken in by messages propagated at the sites.  If one measures the success of a website in terms of high traffic generated, the following sites certainly do just that… http://www.kukluxklan.org/, www.klukluxklan.net, www.kkkk.net, www.kkk.com, www.theklan.com.  Stormfront, a sympathetic portal to a number of white supremacy groups, has logged nearly 6 million hits since its inception in 1995.

So how do hate sites, the majority of which continue to reside on servers in America, continue to exist?  First of all, they jump between internet services as required.  Second, they have learned to broadcast seemingly sophisticated, non-violent messages intended to engender visitors to their cause.  In fact, one white supremacy site visited by this author looked very similar to a website developed by a prominent online university… at least until one started reading the text.  Threatening hate messages have been replaced by increasingly subtle messages defending racial, ethnic and sexual purity.  Of course, there is just not a whole lot subtle about website addresses such as http://www.godhatesfags.com/ and http://www.jewwatch.com/.  Third and perhaps most importantly, most Americans believe in the Amendments to the Constitution.  The first amendment guarantees the right to religious freedom, free speech and peaceful assembly and states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

In response to the presence of hate sites, we also find highly organized anti-hate sites such as http://www.adl.org/, http://hatewatch.org, and http://www.splcenter.org/klanwatch.html.  So, while the majority of hate sites continue to reside on American servers, albeit with increasing difficulty, the boundaries between hate speech and hate crime become increasingly clear, giving ISP’s more backbone with regard to their ability to refuse web space to hate groups.  Unwarranted hatred is no more likely to completely die out than is the right to free speech in America.  But as such unwarranted hatred becomes increasingly less acceptable, continue to maintain an open dialog with your children and monitor their use of the Internet, and remember the old rule of thumb, “Don’t seek and ye shall not find.”