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In light of findings, ADL calls on infrastructure companies to step up efforts to remove extremist websites.
New York, NY, February 7, 2023 … Deplatforming extremist websites—removing the critical infrastructure underpinning them—can reduce the spread and reach of extremism and hate online, according to a new report from ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) timed to Internet Safety Day.
The report “Bad Gateway: How Deplatforming Affects Extremist Websites” shows that fighting extremism online requires not only better content moderation and more transparency from social media companies, but also action from infrastructure providers like Cloudflare, GoDaddy, and Google.
“Internet infrastructure companies like Cloudflare and GoDaddy have repeatedly provided services to extremist websites, including those that have incited offline harassment leading to targets receiving death threats and being forced to flee their homes,” said Yael Eisenstat, Vice President of ADL’s Center for Technology and Society. “These internet service providers have flown under the radar of public scrutiny for too long. It's time for these companies to step up and ensure they are not helping extremists to reach new audiences with hate and harassment.”
Written by ADL Belfer Fellow Megan Squire, the report demonstrates how deplatforming is effective, making it harder for extremists to spread their ideologies, recruit adherents, and profit from hateful content. And it shows how unexpected deplatforming makes it more difficult for extremist websites to build and retain followers.
With some sites, such as the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer and message board 8chan, the negative impact of the deplatforming on domain rankings was immediate and significant. The Daily Stormer’s rankings, for example, were harmed by persistent domain removals and changing top-level domains 17 times.
“Even if the task of deplatforming bad actors is tedious and imperfect,” Squire writes, “it is necessary to support the millions of users who follow the rules and wish to use the internet in peace. It is time to call on internet infrastructure providers to do their part to stop hate.”
Squire suggests advocacy groups wage sustained pressure campaigns to persuade infrastructure companies to drop clients whose sole purpose is to be a platform for hate, especially if they take no steps to mitigate the hate or specific people are targeted. Cloudflare cut The Daily Stormer, 8chan, and, more recently, the harassment website KiwiFarms, after trans Twitch streamer Keffals was swatted by trolls and went into hiding.
ADL urges infrastructure providers to have comprehensive anti-extremism policies and enforce those policies. They also need to work in coalition to track bad actors inciting hate. Their coordination is the only way to ensure extremist websites cannot flourish online.
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The ADL Belfer Fellowship program is possible due to the continued generosity of the Robert Belfer Family. ADL’s Center for Technology and Society works with the fellows as they pursue research in previously unexplored areas. The fellows also augment ADL’s ongoing research efforts to help quantify and qualify online hate in a variety of social media sites, gaming platforms and other fringe online communities. Read more about the Belfer Fellowship and the Center for Technology and Society at: adl.org/CTS.
ADL is a leading anti-hate organization. Founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of antisemitism and bigotry, its timeless mission is to protect the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment for all. Today, ADL continues to fight all forms of hate with the same vigor and passion. ADL is the first call when acts of antisemitism occur. A global leader in exposing extremism, delivering anti-bias education and fighting hate online, ADL’s ultimate goal is a world in which no group or individual suffers from bias, discrimination or hate.