Discussion: The Media Collective Exposing Hate Groups’ Private Chats, One Leak At A Time

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Angry white male kills 49 in terror attach in New Zealand @allegra

Rightwing extremist wrote manifesto before livestreaming Christchurch shooting
Brenton Tarrant, man claiming to be a suspect in the killing of 40 people in New Zealand, said his motive was to ‘create fear’
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/15/rightwing-extremist-wrote-manifesto-before-livestreaming-christchurch-shooting

Live stream

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I feel physically ill.

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This. More of this, please.

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These Unicorn Rioters are among the many impressive young people who give me hope for the world – the Gretas, the Davids, the Emmas, the AOCs, etc., etc. These sharp, passionate and fearless individuals show up and show out – everyday. They make my generation of Baby Boomers – now in leadership – look so very lame.

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This should be BIGGER news and an inspiring offset to the failed state of so many Republican Congressional “leaders” who are doing less than nothing if not aiding and abetting the hate groups.

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One of the most jarring realizations about studying these groups, Martinez said, is “just how professional a lot of these people are. It’s depressing when you see that it’s EMTs, and teachers and things like that.”

Also, they’re in the White House or still connected with it. For example, Miller and Bannon. Miller helped write Trump’s dark inaugural speech. He’s the president’s current senior policy advisor.
Or take Steve King, a current Congressman who will most likely win re-election. They’re not even trying to conceal who they are. They’re telegraphing it. As is the president.

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This is something the FBI and other law enforcement agencies should be doing on a large scale. I don’t see it happening until after the 2020 elections.

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Unfortunately, I suspect that you’d find quite a few people in law enforcement who share some of their beliefs.

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I am pretty sure you are correct about that and it is going to be very difficult to root them out.

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A thank you to Unicorn Riot.

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OT:

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And a thank you to @allegra for the piece. Great reporting.

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Here’s the deal. The powers that be and the tech heads are very much able to make it practically impossible to deal in child pornography, and other things child related, on the internet. Those same methods can and must be applied to hate speech, as well as videos of heinous crimes such as what happened in Australia. Such things ought not be available online even for a nanosecond. It’s not a free speech issue any more than child pornography is. We simply have to do it.

I heard one of the computer experts who advises our government and various business concerns point this out. The methods and techniques are there. It can and should be made illegal for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Discord, and all of them to allow this stuff on their platforms, even for a nanosecond.

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Hadrian said it best----‘brick by brick’.
We can neuter them, people. One incel at a time, folks. We can DO this.

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The leaks were a “gift,” according to the attorneys seeking to sue these groups for their well-coordinated plan to commit violence at the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally. They’ve helped journalists and anti-hate organizations reveal how white nationalists have rallied in support of Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and worked to infiltrate the Republican Party from the ground up.

Unfortunately, the institutionalized racism within the GOP doesn’t stop with Steve King. That racism goes deep within the GOP. It is now a requisite function of what the GOP stands for.

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“‘Hey, I think my niece might be dating a white nationalist, and I think I found him ‘cause his email address is similar to his Discord address.’ When she went looking, she found that his photos matched in the Discord leaks with his actual appearance. And she was able to get her niece to stop dating that guy.”

Of course the neck tatoo “88” helped too.

ETA: I second @pwmesq 's praise for Ms. Kirkland.

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The FBI warned in 2016 that this activity was on the rise, we saw dozens of incidents where white supremacists murdered innocent people and little has changed…blame it on the the lackeys in Congress to whom no amount of death and violence will overcome their love of money, position and power.

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The FBI trolled the Russian troll farm and crashed their site the day of the 2018 election. So there are plenty of geeky spooks working the inter webs at this point.
I’m sure they appreciate help from organizations like Unicorn Riot. Frees them up for the international stuff.

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Missing here is even a glancing acknowledgement of the fundamental issues that arise from relying on “leaks” like this.

The “chain of custody” is always a major question. Did everyone who had a hand in that “leak” have the same altruistic intentions, or did they color what was leaked (and what was not leaked) via personal biases? Can we extract those biases post fact, or does that simply taint such leaks as unreliable?

Related, the more credence is given to leaks, the larger a surface we are giving to sophisticated actors to sway public opinion. Think Wikileaks. Had those leaks been given the scrutiny and not been immediately credulously received by the public, they would not have had the damaging effect (which is still felt even now, although amongst a much smaller group than those who fell for them at the outset).

A leak-based information economy is rife for subterfuge and manipulation. I am glad of Unicorn Riot’s short-term effects, and believe that at least most of them are acting with purest of intentions and are exposing actual white nationalists. At the same time, making leaks more “mainstream” is a major negative long-term effect which shouldn’t be ignored.

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