Practicum Post #3

After my first two visits were relative failures into connecting and getting in-depth insight into the online world of internet activism, my third endeavor was only marginally better. This time I visited the infamous white power message board called StormFront. StormFront is an unapologetically racist message board where the internet's white patriots, anglophiles, and self-proclaimed aryans congregate to discuss all things they consider supportive of the white power movement. They also have a board that is specifically devoted to activism. Most of the activism posted are notifications about rallies and events in areas to try and get locals to join in. Besides these notifications, the activism board moves pretty slow, and there are few instances of actual activism online or offline apart from the notifications. On the account I made, I posted in a few threads asking what other things people do to take part in activism, but have received no replies.

The above screen shots show one of the more interesting instances of online activism. In the thread, members discuss the idea posited by the original poster that the far right should have a hacking presence, since it is a "powerful tool." The thread has generated quite a few comments in a short amount of time compared to other threads, and the idea seemed quite attractive to many in the community. However, many users had basic misconceptions about hacking groups, including thinking that Anonymous is a highly hierarchical group that is "anti-White." There were discussions about white power themed hacking operations, but those references were very vague, and I had a difficult time finding anything concrete about them elsewhere. Nothing was organized in this thread, just ideas being bounced back and forth. Overall, the amount of actual activism happening on StormFront was pretty minimal, and I'm not sure I would consider white-only rallies or meetings to be instances of activism.