Current Events > The alt-right created a parallel internet. It's a mess.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/11/technology/alt-right-internet.html

In recent months, as sites like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have cracked down on hate speech and barred several high-profile conservative users, the alt-right made a declaration of technological independence from Silicon Valley. Hard-right activists vowed to create their own versions of these digital services, on which all views would be welcome, no matter how crude or incendiary.

More than a dozen alt-tech companies have now emerged, each promising a refuge from political correctness and censorship. There is Gab, a kind of alt-Twitter social network that began last year, whose early adopters included prominent figures like Milo Yiannopoulos and Andrew Anglin, the founder of the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website. There is WrongThink (alt-Facebook), PewTube (alt-YouTube), Voat (alt-Reddit), Infogalactic (alt-Wikipedia) and GoyFundMe (alt-Kickstarter). There is even WASP.love, a dating site for white nationalists and others wishing to preserve their heritage.

Recently, I spent several days testing a number of these alt-tech services. I created accounts, explored their features and interfaces, and interviewed users of each site about their experiences. (With my wifes permission, I even created a WASP.love profile and advertised myself as a New York journalist looking to interview lovelorn white supremacists. Oddly, I got no takers.)

What I found on these sites was more pitiful than fear-inspiring. Sure, some alt-tech platforms were filled with upsetting examples of Nazi imagery and bigoted garbage. But most were ghost towns, with few active users and no obvious supervision. As technology products, many are second- or third-rate, with long load times, broken links and frequent error messages. A few had been taken offline altogether.

Im an investor in Gab, wrote the user, who goes by the username @AnewThomasPaine. I believe in the idea, but Im disappointed in the platform. In another message, he wrote: I barely use it as there are few active users, and few essential features even after a year.
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Today, Gab is buggy and confusing, and much of the activity on the site appears to come from a small core of frequent users. Several of the well-known figures who once posted on the site have abandoned it. (Im a creature of habit, and fell out of habit of posting there, Mike Cernovich, a notorious right-wing media personality, told me.) The site also had its own censorship drama earlier this year, after moderators removed a post that mocked Heather Heyer, the activist killed during the Charlottesville protests.
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Hatreon got off to a fast start, with more than 400 creators raising about $25,000 per month on the platform. But lately, it has fallen into disrepair. According to Mr. Wilson, a major credit card company, which he declined to name, kicked Hatreon off its network last month, preventing many users from funding projects on the site and all but killing the companys prospects for growth. Today, visitors to Hatreon are greeted by a message saying that pledging is currently disabled while we upgrade our systems.
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Alt-tech is also a victim of the same market forces that have held back other small tech start-ups. Much of the internets basic architecture is controlled by a handful of gatekeepers Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon among them. Those companies run back-end services that allow developers to build reliable products, the app stores that allow them to reach a mass audience, and the advertising platforms that allow them to make money. Without the support of Silicon Valleys giants, its nearly impossible to compete, no matter what your political views are.

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As that seems to suggest, you do wonder if the glut of alt right websites means the overarching community is too thinly spread across all of them
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Whodathunkit that an echochamber of racists wouldn't receive any support. It's sorta like Google, Twitter, and Reddit were onto something when they kicked those groups off of their platforms.
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Was hoping this would be about the Dark Web, but it doesn't even seem that interesting. Sounds more like that "I'll make my own with blackjack and hookers!" Futurama meme.
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This would be like if all the banned users here decided to make their own gamefaqs
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CrimsonRage posted...

Sounds like this "Alt-tech" would benefit from Net Neutrality. Too bad it's going away.

I mean, it's seeing those problems under net neutrality. Restrictions on ISPs don't apply to Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc.
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A_Good_Boy posted...

Whodathunkit that an echochamber of racists wouldn't receive any support. It's sorta like Google, Twitter, and Reddit were onto something when they kicked those groups off of their platforms.

Kinda puts a dent into the argument that racists are everywhere though.
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Antifar posted...

In recent months, as sites like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have cracked down on free speech

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thronedfire2 posted...

This would be like if all the banned users here decided to make their own gamefaqs

"Hey guys we can finally troll all we want. Fuck those other sites for kicking us off!

You know what? It's kinda boring just shouting the n-word into an empty hallway without anyone to react to us. If we promise to be Good_Boys do you think Reddit will take us back?"
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Vyrulisse posted...

A_Good_Boy posted...

Whodathunkit that an echochamber of racists wouldn't receive any support. It's sorta like Google, Twitter, and Reddit were onto something when they kicked those groups off of their platforms.

Kinda puts a dent into the argument that racists are everywhere though.

I mean, there are degrees. You can be a racist and not quit Twitter and Facebook in search of explicitly racist alternatives.
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How profitable would it be to try and take advantage of the alt right movement with some sort of product? Like an alt right crypto currency or something
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Vyrulisse posted...

A_Good_Boy posted...

Whodathunkit that an echochamber of racists wouldn't receive any support. It's sorta like Google, Twitter, and Reddit were onto something when they kicked those groups off of their platforms.

Kinda puts a dent into the argument that racists are everywhere though.

i can't imagine most racists are technically literate, nor would they care enough to splinter off and use shitty, buggy sites with no users

I guess the end of net neutrality wont be all bad
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treewojima posted...

Vyrulisse posted...

A_Good_Boy posted...

Whodathunkit that an echochamber of racists wouldn't receive any support. It's sorta like Google, Twitter, and Reddit were onto something when they kicked those groups off of their platforms.

Kinda puts a dent into the argument that racists are everywhere though.

i can't imagine most racists are technically literate, nor would they care enough to splinter off and use shitty, buggy sites with no users

Laziness is not bound by ideological persuasions, after all.
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They are kinda pathetic. But if this took off, they would be racist and awful.
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I'm amused at the amount of time and money these shitstains wasted on an obvious born to fail model

Vyrulisse posted...

A_Good_Boy posted...

Whodathunkit that an echochamber of racists wouldn't receive any support. It's sorta like Google, Twitter, and Reddit were onto something when they kicked those groups off of their platforms.

Kinda puts a dent into the argument that racists are everywhere though.

Proves just the opposite. All the racists are still just on facebook and twitter. If they had all abandoned the world to sequester themselves in their more nazi friendly substitute sites you'd have a point
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thronedfire2 posted...

This would be like if all the banned users here decided to make their own gamefaqs

It would just be madfoot and boxxy alts
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conservapedia (conservative wikipedia!) has been a thing for a while now, for the record. More gawkers and visitors than actual people looking for information, iirc.
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