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3 years ago today David Duke, Richard Spencer, Jason Kessler, Evan McLaren, Elliot Kline, Thomas Rousseau, Matthew Heimbach & Patrick Casey organized the deadly white nationalist rally in #Charlottesville on social media.
100s of white supremacists remain on @Twitter & @Facebook
100s of white supremacists remain on @Twitter & @Facebook
In the lead-up to their deadly white nationalist rally, organizers used @Twitter and @Facebook to make their violent intentions known. Among those early organizers was Richard Spencer…
Using a combination of internal organizing on the Discord App and marketing on Facebook and Twitter, these marginal white nationalists assembled members of violent organizations who beat DeAndre Harris, grievously injured 34+ others and murdered Heather Heyer that afternoon.
Against the backdrop of the day’s violence in #Charlottesville, Richard Spencer used the moment to further gin up violent white nationalist supporters, vowing that he’d “keep coming back” and “we are going to destroy this fucking town.”
After the alt-right were pushed out of Emancipation Park by police, Richard Spencer made similar speeches at nearby McIntyre Park. Among those listening was James Alex Fields, who that afternoon drove his car into counter protesters killing Heather Heyer. https://twitter.com/JackieKru/status/896426700933910528?s=20
. @Twitter @Policy has taken important steps to ban organizers including Duke, McLaren and Kline but dangerous hatemongers Richard Spencer, Jason Kessler and more remain on the platform. They must all be banned. https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-twitter-dump-white-supremacists?source=direct_link&referrer=group-free-press-action-fund
As recently as August 3, 2020, Spencer continued to violate Twitter @policy, cruelly targeting a woman of color. The platform won’t be safe and healthy until its policy is enforced consistently.
.@TechTransparencyProj recently revealed 100+ white supremacist groups have a presence on @Facebook, where algorithms amplify their ideology to millions. https://www.techtransparencyproject.org/articles/white-supremacist-groups-are-thriving-on-facebook
White supremacists still weaponize social media to threaten our lives. @Facebook and @Twitter must enforce their terms against hate, ban white supremacists, and commit to #ChangeTheTerms and adopt our model policies: https://www.changetheterms.org/terms
For over a year, our civil rights coalition has pushed social media platforms to strengthen their terms and conditions to reduce hateful activities online and it’s working. Please join us: https://www.changetheterms.org/organizational-sign-on
