Hate-related web sites on rise but Canada scores high marks for enforcement

Officials from the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) are praising Canada for its progressive legislation dealing with hate on the Internet, but at the release in Ottawa of the SWC’s annual study of the Internet, staff said further work remains to stop its propagation. Specifically, the group continues to push for a system of ensuring domain name registrants are traceable and using their real identities. But the group is pleased to report this year that no web sites it classifies as hate are currently set up in this country, said Toronto director Leo Adler and the center’s associate dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper. On Parliament Hill June 19, representatives from the Wiesenthal Center told media that the number of hate- and terror-related web sites has risen globally from last year’s 3,500 to a new high of over 4,000. But, they also noted, none of those are run from servers on Canadian soil - though nearly 100 sites are run by Canadians, mostly from American servers where the First Amendment protects such content as free speech. In Canada, however, decisions handed down in recent years by the Canadian Human Rights Commission against such figures as Holocaust-denier Ernst Zundel (CNM, Nov. 14/02) and others, coupled with the efficient cooperation by members of the Canadian Association of Internet Providers, has pushed hate activity into other jurisdictions. Canadian law enforcement has also proven responsive. "When we find something and draw a straight line, we know it’s going to be followed up," Adler says of the willingness of police to pursue potential hate cases in this country. "We’d be very happy if every democracy takes the same approach as Canada," Cooper later added. Adler told media during a press conference that the SWC will continue to work with international groups such as the United Nations and European Union on transnational domain name registries and other measures to further stymie terrorists and hate-mongers in their posting activities. He also noted that it might be worthwhile to pursue jurisdictional issues so that sites in the U.S. that target Canada could be subject to this country’s laws. Cooper also called on ordinary Canadians to help in the fight by notifying police of potentially offending web sites and keeping cached copies as evidence. "No organization, no institution, I would dare say no government, can possibly follow every development online," Cooper told the assembled media. He said children, especially, should be made aware of this type of material online since material targeting Canadians can be easily hosted off-shore. A nascent trend that Adler sees, for instance, is skinhead and similarly racist people targeting a Canadian audience with anti-immigration sites. The sites work to recruit members and resources, he noted, but a main purpose for these Canadian-oriented sites seems to be to project a strong international image for groups that are often just a handful of individuals. Another change noticed by SWC staff is a new focus on terror on the web. Since the 9/11 attacks, more militant groups are using the Internet to coordinate attacks and engage in command and control activities, often hiding their plans in plain site using steganographic techniques. To mark the new focus, the study, which is distributed as a CD, has been renamed Digital Terrorism and Hate 2003, the first time terrorism has been explicitly mentioned. "We must understand that terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and their supporters are using Internet technology in a very sophisticated fashion and they spawn transnational alliances," said Cooper.

Hate-related web sites on rise but Canada scores high marks for enforcement

News | 06/25/2003 4:00 am EDT

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