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Cellular
Taking On
The KKK
TOBY AXELROD
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Click once, and the background
music is none other than the
theme to the movie Exodus.
But this is not a biblical Web
site. It is the home of the Ku
Klux Klan's Realm of Texas cell,
operating under what critics call
a misleadingly benign guise.
It is also the site that prompt-
ed the Anti-Defamation League
to join America Online in its
fight against hate on the Inter-
net. Discussions began recently,
after a swarm of complaints
about Klan Web sites with AOL
addresses.
"We are researching different
kinds of filters" to enable Inter-
net users to block hate sites, said
ADL's Legal Affairs Director
Steven Freeman. "We need to do
our homework [as to] whether
or not it is workable, or practi-
cable from a legal standpoint."
Recently, AOL ditched one
Klan site based on breach of
terms-of-service, which bans
hate speech.
Research is underway on oth-
er tactics. "We think we can at
least remove the aol.com address
from those kinds of sites," said
George Vradenburg III, AOL's
senior vice president and gener-
al counsel.
Other possibilities include a
rating system allowing AOL
members to screen out hate
sites; and creating "a gateway so
if you ever type 'KKK' or `kike'
or 'nigger' you automatically go
to a site which describes the na-
ture of these groups," said Mr.
Vradenburg.
"It is very difficult to try to
control these kinds of things,
particularly with the First
Amendment consideration,"
warned Jack Nelson, author of
Terror in the Night: The Klan's
Campaign Against the Jews
(1993), and chief of the Los An-
geles Times Washington bureau.
"But there could be ways of mak-
ing the average user out there
understand what they are get-
ting into."
Mr. Nelson said the Internet
may give "added power" through
"communication with other ex-
tremists."
David Hoffman, Internet re-
searcher for ADL, agrees.
"There are 200 or so sites out
there where there is absolutely
virulent anti-Semitism ... and
anti-government stuff. And they
all come together and create an
environment where people find
reinforcement for their ideas.
That is where I think it is dan-
gerous."
❑
New York Jewish Week
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