👓 New plugin allows the far-right to ‘graffiti’ any website | Columbia Journalism Review

Read New plugin allows the far-right to ‘graffiti’ any website by Martin Goillandeau and Makana Eyre (Columbia Journalism Review)
Dissenter acts as a workaround for people wishing to comment on websites, even those without a comment section. One user, Cody Jassman, describe the plugin as “like the graffiti painted in the alley on every web page. You can take a look around and see what passersby are saying.” The plugin was launched in beta at the end of February by Andrew Torba, who co-founded Gab, a far-right social network. Gab is well known for being the platform where Robert Bowers, the suspected Pittsburgh synagogue shooter, published anti-Semitic comments before he allegedly killed 11 people and wounded many others at the Tree of Life synagogue.

🎧 “The Daily”: The Rise of Right-Wing Extremism, and How U.S. Law Enforcement Ignored It | New York Times

Listened to "The Daily": The Rise of Right-Wing Extremism, and How U.S. Law Enforcement Ignored It from New York Times

In an atmosphere of seeming indifference on the part of U.S. law enforcement, a dangerous movement has grown and metastasized.

It’s tremendously painful that the optics of right wing extremism in the Obama administration was used as a means of allowing the alt-right, white supremacists, and neo-Nazis to rise unfettered in the United States. This is worse when one thinks of the death and destruction they have caused in relation to the obscene amounts of money that have been thrown at decreasing international terrorism within our borders.

📺 Documenting Hate: Charlottesville | S36 E13 | FRONTLINE | PBS

Watched Documenting Hate: Charlottesville from FRONTLINE
SEASON 36: EPISODE 13
In Documenting Hate: Charlottesville, FRONTLINE and ProPublica investigate the white supremacists and neo-Nazis involved in the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right rally. This is the first in a series of two Documenting Hate films from FRONTLINE and ProPublica, with the second coming later this fall.
Some solid reporting here. Seems painfully sad that it’s journalists bringing people from Charlottesville to justice in a world with cell phone streaming coverage of such an event.

👓 Former doctoral student arrested for involvement in 2017 Charlottesville riots | Daily Bruin

Read Former doctoral student arrested for involvement in 2017 Charlottesville riots by Megana Sekar (UCLA Daily Bruin)

A former UCLA doctoral student was arrested with federal conspiracy charges for his involvement in the 2017 Charlottesville riots in Virginia, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Michael Miselis was arrested and charged with conspiracy for traveling to Virginia “with the intent to encourage, promote, incite, participate in, and commit violent acts” along with three other California men, all of whom were part of Rise Above Movement, according to an affidavit of FBI officer Dino Cappuzzo. The group meets in public parks around Southern California and trains in fighting techniques, according to the affidavit.

📺 Documenting Hate: New American Nazis | S36 E17 | FRONTLINE | PBS

Watched Documenting Hate: New American Nazis from FRONTLINE
SEASON 36: EPISODE 17
In the wake of the deadly anti-Semitic attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, FRONTLINE and ProPublica present a new investigation into white supremacist groups in America – in particular, a neo-Nazi group, Atomwaffen Division, that has actively recruited inside the U.S. military. Continuing FRONTLINE and ProPublica’s reporting on violent white supremacists in the U.S. (which has helped lead to multiple arrests), this joint investigation shows the group’s terrorist objectives and how it gained strength after the 2017 Charlottesville rally. [Watch the first documentary in this series, August 2018’s Documenting Hate: Charlottesville, online.]

🎧 The Daily: A Year of Reckoning in Charlottesville | New York Times

Listened to The Daily: A Year of Reckoning in Charlottesville by Michael Barbaro from New York Times

In the 12 months since white nationalists and counterprotesters clashed there, the Virginia city has continued to struggle with centuries-old tensions.

👓 Gab and the decentralized web | Ben Werdmüller

Read Gab and the decentralized web by Ben WerdmüllerBen Werdmüller (Ben Werdmüller)
As a proponent of the decentralized web, I've been thinking a lot about the aftermath of the domestic terrorism that was committed in Pittsburgh at the Tree of Life synagogue over the weekend, and how it specifically relates to the right-wing social network Gab. In America, we're unfortunately used ...
I couldn’t have put it any better myself.

📑 Social Media Bans Actually Work | Motherboard

Annotated Social Media Bans Actually Work (Motherboard)
“We need to puncture this myth that it’s only affecting far-right people. Trans rights activists, Black Lives Matter organizers, LGBTQI people have been demonetized or deranked. The reason we’re talking about far-right people is that they have coverage on Fox News and representatives in Congress holding hearings. They already have political power.”  

👓 PayPal Bans Far-Right Social Network Gab After Anti-Semitic User Kills at Least 11 at Synagogue | Gizmodo

Read PayPal Bans Far-Right Social Network Gab After Anti-Semitic User Kills at Least 11 at Synagogue (Gizmodo)
On Saturday, a firearm-wielding man massacred at least 11 people attending Shabbat services at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood and injured a number of others. The Anti-Defamation League described it as likely the deadliest single attack on the Jewish community in U.S. history. Authorities identified the suspect, who was captured after a gun battle with responding police, as 46-year-old Robert Bowers—a vitriolic anti-Semite who allegedly announced the attack on the social network Gab.

👓 Gab, the Alt-Right Social Media Site, Gets Banned | NY Mag | Intelligencer

Read Gab, the Social Media Site for the Alt-Right, Gets Deplatformed (Intelligencer)
After the Pittsburgh shooter was found to have used the site, it was abandoned by its business partners. What does that mean for Twitter?

👓 gab | Gab.ai

Read gab (gab.ai)

Gab has spent the past 48 hours proudly working with the DOJ and FBI to bring justice to an alleged terrorist. Because of the data we provided, they now have plenty of evidence for their case. In the midst of this Gab has been no-platformed by essential internet infrastructure providers at every level. We are the most censored, smeared, and no-platformed startup in history, which means we are a threat to the media and to the Silicon Valley Oligarchy.

Gab isn’t going anywhere.

It doesn’t matter what you write. It doesn’t matter what the sophist talking heads say on TV. It doesn’t matter what verified nobodies say on Twitter. We have plenty of options, resources, and support. We will exercise every possible avenue to keep Gab online and defend free speech and individual liberty for all people.

You have all just made Gab a nationally recognized brand as the home of free speech online at a time when Silicon Valley is stifling political speech they disagree with to interfere in a US election.

The internet is not reality. TV is not reality. 80% of normal everyday people agree with Gab and support free expression and liberty. The online outrage mob and mainstream media spin machine are the minority opinion. People are waking up, so please keep pointing the finger at a social network instead of pointing the finger at the alleged shooter who holds sole responsibility for his actions.

No-platform us all you want. Ban us all you want. Smear us all you want.

You can’t stop an idea.

As we transition to a new hosting provider Gab will be inaccessible for a period of time. We are working around the clock to get Gab.com back online. Thank you and remember to speak freely.

Andrew Torba, CEO Gab.com

The link to this site is definitely not an endorsement of any sort. I’m researching the idea of deplatforming and in particular Gab’s instance of it after their site was used by fringe groups to incite hatred which helped to fuel the shooting at the synagogue this past week.

My intent is also to archive a copy of the enhanced statement on what is left of their current website.

📺 Brazilian Elections: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO | YouTube

Watched Brazilian Elections: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) from YouTube

Brazil is about to elect a new president during a turbulent period of political corruption and economic uncertainty. John Oliver urges the people of Brazil not to figuratively fingerbang their democracy.

👓 The Cruelty Is the Point | The Atlantic

Read The Cruelty Is the Point (The Atlantic)
Trump and his supporters find community by rejoicing in the suffering of those they hate and fear.
A searing piece of writing here. A must-read.

This makes a compelling argument about why some humans are so painfully cruel.