Here again we see the establishment Left racing to totalitarianism. First came the spurious claim that opposing jihad terror, and speaking accurately about its motivating ideology, was “hate” and “far-right extremism,” on par with the KKK and neo-Nazis. Now come the demands to close off all platforms to “far-right extremists,” and that initiative is proceeding apace now.
Meanwhile, the claim that “of the 85 deadly terrorist attacks in the United States since 2001, 73 per cent were committed by far-right extremists, compared to 27 per cent by Islamist extremists” is, as you might expect, flatly false.
“Social networks should treat far-right extremists like Islamic State,” by Stephanie MacLellan, Globe and Mail, August 19, 2017:
Stephanie MacLellan is a research associate with the Centre for International Governance Innovation, specializing in Internet governance and cybersecurity.
In the aftermath of last weekend’s deadly protests in Charlottesville, tech companies have been blocking far-right extremist groups from their services. This has led to a debate over freedom of expression on the Internet, and the role of companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google in limiting it.
But if it was a different violent extremist group – say, the so-called Islamic State – there would be no debate. In fact, tech giants have been booting off IS supporters for more than a year and disrupting their networks on social media, and there has been no serious outcry.
Why should one group of violent extremists be treated differently than another?
Far-right domestic terrorists – including white supremacists, neo-Nazis and self-declared sovereign citizens who don’t recognize government authority, among others – pose at least as much of a threat in North America as Islamic State terrorists. Of the 85 deadly terrorist attacks in the United States since 2001, 73 per cent were committed by far-right extremists, compared to 27 per cent by Islamist extremists. But it took the tragedy in Charlottesville, where one person was killed and several more injured after a car plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters, to thrust the threat of far-right violent extremists into the spotlight…