Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Neo-Nazi and White Power Groups Using Author's Website to Organize

no pasaran | 12.08.2005 22:48 | Anti-racism | World

Neo-Nazi and White Power groups in Canada, the US and elsewhere have been using Nationstates.net, an online gaming site based on Australian author Max Barry's novel, Jennifer Government, hosted on UK servers, to recruit new members for their hate groups. Let Max Barry know what's up with supporting hate groups by letting them use his site!

PLEASE REPOST WIDELY!

Barry's second novel, Jennifer Government has received very good reviews and the movie rights have just been bought with a movie deal sure to follow. The book is a sardonic and witty dark comedy about corporations run amuck through unrestricted capitalism. Many have said the book contains a strong anti-globalist stance, although Barry denies that his views are in line with anti-globalists. He is a well-received and successful author perhaps set to follow in the footsteps of successful Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk.

Which makes this second part too important to ignore.

Barry created a game site where players create their own nations and play politics with each other, called  http://www.nationstates.net. No wars, just build your nation and debate with each other on forums or through an online United Nations.

After visiting the site, it became obvious that the only editorial policy was about each nation's flag, which cannot contain "a swastika or nudity," although other common Nazi and White Power symbols are perfectly fine. Forums are even less moderated and frequent threads are being posted such as, "How Jews oppress the mentally ill."

It seems as though Neo-Nazis have flocked to the site to create nations of their own. Nations, in gameplay, are part of regions that function as small networks. Each region has its own forum, as well as other forums hosted by a linked site, free of charge. Nazis soon began creating their own regions, including links to external sites and racist bulletin boards such as Stormfront.

When asked about how they were going to respond to hate groups using the site for message boards, a moderator proceeded to lecture about game rules and terms of service. In other words, they blew it off.

One moderator even went so far as to make an in-game reference to "prominent Jewish bankers" opposing a Nazi rally in the daily gameplay announcements.

Searching the NationStates region list, I came across a number of mini-sites within the game controlled by white power activists and being used to promote hate. They include (just Search in the Region drop-box on the main page):

4th Reich SS,
Nazi Deutschland Axis,
The URAP,
NAZI EUROPE,
The NSIA,
Aryanised Europe,
Vichy France,
The United Axis,
Leftists here (a game region taken over by nazis where they threaten to hang "race traitors"),
Idaho,
Supreme Nazi Europe,
Axis Powers,
Norselandic Warriors Front,
the Prussian Reich,
the Fascist Powers,
White Aryan Resistance,
New Stormfront,
...and perhaps more I have simply not discovered yet, with nearly two-hundred user accounts with names such as The Holy Empire of Aryanville, The Nazi Empire of One Reich 1488, etc., including links to these bulletin boards:
 http://s9.invisionfree.com/The_NSIA/index.php?
 http://s12.invisionfree.com/The_Fascist_Powers
 http://thearyanarmy.proboards61.com/index.cgi

Why is this important? The site is accessed by thousands of players. It is prime recruitment ground for White Power groups, and by allowing them free space for their message boards, Nationstates.net is practically handing them fresh members. As a prominent author whose second novel is soon to become a movie, Max Barry should know better. Let him know what's up with the website.

Freedom of speech doesn't mean tolerating hate or letting hate groups use his website's services.

Please contact Max Barry and ask him to take a stand against hate groups on the internet by revising the site's editorial policy to stop them from organizing on it. Each recruit they get equals another racist attack.

No more hate in online games!


Nationstates.org and Nationstates.net are registered to Max Barry through Go Daddy Software, Inc. and are hosted by DNS1.JOLT.CO.UK and DNS2.JOLT.CO.UK.

Please. It's up to all of us to put racists where they belong.

no pasaran

Comments

Display the following 20 comments

  1. I don't think it's as bad as you make out — Chicken Boo
  2. Tolerate or become a Fascist yourself... — P
  3. NS... — SL
  4. Don't shoot yourself in my foot — Bill Posters
  5. So if I give someone a hard time for letting Nazis use their website... — ...then that makes me a Nazi???
  6. If you hadn't noticed, this isn't a game — Racist, violent hate groups are not something to patronize over.
  7. Please, Bill Posters, stop... — The doublespeak! It hurts so!
  8. Anti-Fascists becoming Fascists — Ilyan
  9. Bill Posters is Innocent! — Bill
  10. Bill — magoo
  11. Freedom of speech for everyone, even me... — no pasaran
  12. Much as.... — Big Bad Boab
  13. doublespeak in advertising — the digital consumer
  14. Doublespeak, eh? — Irony
  15. well there you have it! — and irony saves the day...again.
  16. Playstation also guilty — Abramonich
  17. Sir Johnie Walker — Sir Walker
  18. ...but the irony continues — Adapt, Mutate or Buy
  19. Asking vs. Telling — Mr. Clarity
  20. the Kingdom of Odhinnia — Erikr Haakon
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech