Racist and Violent Ideas Jump From Web’s Fringes to Mainstream Sites

Mr. Gendron, according to the documents he posted, seemed to have read none of those; instead he attributed the “great replacement” notion to the online writings posted by the gunman who murdered 51 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019.

After that attack, New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, spearheaded an international pact, called the Christchurch Call, that saw government and major tech companies commit to eliminate terrorist and extremist content online. Though the agreement carried no legal penalties, the Trump administration refused to sign, citing the principle of free speech.

Mr. Gendron’s experience online shows that the writings and video clips associated with the Christchurch shooting remain available to inspire other acts of racially motivated violence. He referred to both repeatedly.

The Anti-Defamation League warned last year that the “great replacement” had moved from the fringes of white supremacist beliefs toward the mainstream, pointing to the chants of protesters at the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., that erupted in violence and the commentaries of Tucker Carlson on Fox News.

“Most of us don’t know the original story,” Mr. Ward of the Southern Poverty Law Center said. “What we know is the narrative, and the narrative of the great replacement theory has been credentialized by elected officials and personalities to such an extent that the origins of the story no longer need to be told. People are beginning to just understand it as if they might understand conventional wisdom. And that’s what is frightening.”

For all the efforts some major social media platforms have made to moderate content online, the algorithms they use — often meant to show users posts that they will read, watch and click — can accelerate the spread of disinformation and other harmful content

Media Matters for America, a liberal-leaning nonprofit, said last month that its researchers found at least 50 ads on Facebook over the last two years promoting aspects of the “great replacement” and related themes. Many of the ads came from candidates for political office, even though the company, now known as Meta, announced in 2019 that it would bar white nationalist and white separatist content from Facebook and Instagram.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/01/technology/fringe-mainstream-social-media.html