EXTREME!-ists

The Internet is great in bringing people with like-minded thoughts and opinions together, giving them a platform to express their shared love. If you’ve ever used Tumblr, that’s pretty much half of it-people all fangirling over their favourite tv shows or movies. 

(http://data.whicdn.com/images/38370651/tumblr_mao8wn28VR1r6r7t1_large.gif) (https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/3254735848/f85a07143b1c4fd1cd419ab8f2c3220d.jpeg)

But there is a dark side to this- just as people can join together to discuss their love of my little pony, they can just as easily join together to form hate groups, and find people with like minded hatred. Hate groups have expanded from small domains on the Internet to pages on social media sites such as Facebook.  By incorporating hate groups on social media it makes it easier than ever for people to join and to target potential members.

I personally have seen a number of ‘hate’ groups pop up on Facebook recently, a ‘Cancer is funny because people die’ one pop’s to mind. It’s hard to tell through online hate groups if people are being serious with their claims or are simply trying to cause a stir and make people angry. 

 

(http://images.wikia.com/fantendo/images/3/3e/Troll_Face.png)

Extremist groups are “any ideology or political act far outside the perceived political centre of a society; or otherwise claimed to violate common moral standards. “ This means extremist groups can be a part of a registered political party. Take the Australia First Party for example. The Australia First Party is an extreme right wing political party, (making it extremist) whose policies including limiting immigration and abolishing multiculturalism.  Besides having their website made using  Comic Sans

(how can anyone take anything written in Comic Sans seriously?) 

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(http://chic-type.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/comic_sans_2.gif)

My face exactly when I see Comic Sans.


No.

The Australia First party has failed to make any huge impact online, with just over 200 likes on Facebook. 

 

(http://www.australiafirst.net/graphics/logo01.gif)

(http://www.fightdemback.org/files/images/pylstickersepping5.jpg)

Howard Rheingold has a utopian view of virtual communities and the way they benefit our lives.  This allows people from across the world to share their views without ever leaving their house. This aids in the creation of hate groups because your privacy is protected. The community and the people around you are unaware of what you are up to or what you are supporting, you can easily find people with similar extremist views that may not exist in your community.

Personally, I can only see the dark side of social media growing in the future. Society as a whole is becoming more and more desensitised and more hate groups will emerge as people ‘like’ them as inappropriate jokes. Extremist political parties will continue and increase their presence on social media to recruit members. Social media means people can have secret identities online and cannot physically see the people they are offending, making it all the easier to do so.  

(http://www.opednews.com/populum/uploaded/hate-22149-20130102-617.jpg)