"Redirect Method": Countering Online Extremism
3. Among the at-risk audience for violent white nationalism, searches for influential literature are popular. One example is the Turner Diaries, an apocalyptic, violently anti-Semitic and racist novel by former National Alliance leader William Luther Pierce that depicts a race war leading to the extermination of non-whites. Despite the book being published more than 40 years ago, it remains highly influential among white supremacists, and has been credited as instrumental in the development of the white genocide conspiracy theory.
4. Among the audience at risk for carrying out acts motivated by Islamist-inspired extremism, ADL and our partners found that highly violent searches are becoming increasingly common. These include searches for keywords such as “Kill apostates” and “Kill shia.” These findings should alarm experts and the public alike.
In all, the program boasted results of 179,684 “impressions” of our online content addressing white supremacist searches across all counties in the U.S., 4,295 clicks on our ads for non-violent content, and with one video undermining extremism that received over 5,000 views thanks to our ad campaign. The results varied based on the timing and the location where individuals were more likely to search for extremist content.
Case Study: The Effect of the El Paso Shooting on Violent Far-Right Activity on Google
On 3 August 2019, Patrick Wood Crusius entered a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and opened fire, allegedly killing 22 people and injuring 24 others. Moments before the attack, he published a white nationalist manifesto online that referenced the Christchurch attack and the white genocide conspiracy theory.
Our project found that searches for white supremacist extremist content spiked immediately after the El Paso attack, resulting in a 104 percent increase in impressions and a 59 percent increase in clicks. Yet with those searches, the diversion ad views spiked as well, suggesting the Redirect Method may have blunted some of the momentum of that shooter’s influence on the next generation of extremists.
Fighting Online Propaganda
The Redirect Method will need to evolve to fully help us understand how to “off-ramp” hate-searchers before they become in-real-life extremists. In the meantime, it has given us insights, such as the spike in interest in extremism following what many people would think of as a tragedy, that those searching for extremist content respond to content such as “should you fight for your heritage?” to help them understand that their communities are not under threat, and key demographics such as preferred entertainment media or age and geographic breakdowns of those searching for hate. Overall, it is promising that online ads absorbed some of the online behavior of would-be extremists, which bodes well for efforts to help prevent them from continuing down a potentially violent path.
“While there’s more to be done in fighting online hate, the Redirect Method shows promise. We hope these results will inspire tech companies, governments, and international groups to join ADL in tackling this challenge,” the ADL says.
The articleis published courtesy of the Anti-Defamation League(ADL)
