There is a long tradition, at least as long as possible in online terms, of online activism. Usenet groups and web sites have proven to be handy tool in spearheading letter writing campaigns and petitions, and for organizing purposes. Howard Dean’s entire Presidential campaign was organized on-line, and while not successful in its main objective it did help build the network that was the basis of the Fifty-State Strategy that helped win back Congress for the Democrats two years later.
But in the hands of the right wing, the internet has proven to be a much more insidious tool, providing organizational and networking tools for intimidation, and worse, of those who disagree with them. Like the KKK before them, right-wingers ride through the electronic night seeking to keep people they see as wrong, or even less human than them through threats and intimidations. The major differences between these modern night riders and the invisible army on which they model themselves are that the crosses they burn are virtual ones, and instead of white hoods, they use pseudonyms and proxy registrars to shield their identity.
The most notable of these new cyber riders is probably Chad Castanega, a user of the website Free Republic, who was indicted late last year for mailing threats and white powder (intended to make the victims think the letters included anthrax) to notable figures like Speaker Nancy Pelosi, David Letterman, Jon Stewart, and Keith Olbermann. Castanega even allegedly bragged about his crimes on Free Republic, which deleted Castanega’s posts after his arrest focused media attention on the site.
Castanega’s case, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. Castanega allegedly targeted media celebrities and high ranking politicians, but the vast majority of attacks are not against the famous, but against individual people. Right-wing message boards routinely swap research and information on their targets, including threats to post photographs of their opponent’s homes and make them targets for physical violence. Harassing E-Mails are often sent not only to targets but to their families and employers, some containing veiled threats and others blatant threats. Phone numbers are bombarded with harassing calls. Home addresses and phone numbers are posted, with readers encouraged to firebomb the homes of political opponents. The list goes on and on.
One significant example of cyber-lynching turned into real life injury is that of Andy Stephenson, an opponent of electronic voting machines. When Andy was diagnosed with cancer and found himself uninsured, a Democratic website he was a member of started a fund drive to pay his hospital bills. Shortly before he was due to be admitted to the hospital, Andy found his funds seized by on-line funds provider PayPal, which claimed to have received word that the fund drive was fraudulent, and froze the account pending an investigation. It later came out that people at at least one conservative website had started making small donations to Andy’s hospital fund, then claimed that the donations were actually examples of credit card fraud. By the time the funds could be released, Andy’s condition had significantly worsened and he died of complications from surgery shortly afterward. Whether this activity against Stephenson was a prank gone horribly wrong or a deliberate attempt to deny him medical care, the end result is the same. Stephenson died, chalking up a kill for the cyber-night riders.
Since the founding of our republic, there have been debates about the limits of free speech. When does something that’s said cross the line into incitement to violence or terroristic threats? When does a posting on a website cross the line from mockery into libel? The lines are fine and sometimes not well delineated. What is certain is that the extreme right wing, always experts at organizing, have discovered and are making good use of modern tools to silence and intimidate their opposition. If no one is held responsible for the next terroristic threat or intimidation, the extremists will only be encouraged by their success, and as much of the South was held captive by the men in the white sheets in the early part of the 20th Century, the online world may be made prisoner to those who have moved the tactics of their predecessors into the 21st Century.
©2007 P. Sungenis, All Rights Reserved.
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