Major Companies Are Cutting Off White Supremacists
In what appears to be a direct response to white nationalists’ violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend, major technology companies are making an effort to distance themselves from white supremacists, and especially how those groups make money.
Apple confirmed to BuzzFeed News that it disabled Apple Pay from several websites that sold Nazi and white supremacist merchandise, and noted its policy prohibits sites that promote violence and hatred. PayPal, another online payments service, wrote a blog post Tuesday that they have a similar policy, and work to make sure their services aren’t used to promote intolerance. According to CNN, they have blocked payments to a number of accounts reported by the Southern Poverty Law Center, including the think tank of prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer.
Domain name service GoDaddy says it booted neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer because it crossed the line from exercising freedom of speech to inciting violence, according to CNBC. The company gave the site 24 hours to move their domain to a different provider. And its host, French company Scaleway, terminated the Daily Stormer’s account.
Billboard reported Wednesday that Spotify removed several white supremacist bands after an article on Digital Music News called out 37 such bands on the service. Spotify said in a statement that the record companies are “at first hand responsible,” but they do their best to remove hateful content as soon as they can. “Illegal content or material that favors hatred or incites violence against race, religion, sexuality or the like is not tolerated by us,” the company said.
These companies have shut down larger sites and groups in the past, but the challenge now is to constantly fight smaller sites, which will likely pop up under new names to fly under the radar. In the meantime, Color of Change’s Blood Money project shows which companies, directly or indirectly, assist with the funding of hate groups.
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