Deplatforming

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Deplatforming (eng: “taking the platform”), also no-platforming, describes a strategy for the permanent exclusion of individual people or groups from (mostly digital) platforms such as social networks , online service providers or providers . This usually happens due to repeated disregard of fixed rules, but can also happen without giving reasons or in response to public pressure or pressure from advertisers. Specifically, the exclusion goes hand in hand with the deletion or blocking of accounts, profiles or channels, i.e. all or as many platforms as possible that the person or group needs "to stay famous and thus relevant".

function

The aim of deplatforming is to take away the public reach of the person or group concerned and cut them off from their audience and sources of funding. Netzpolitik.org writes:

"It means the exclusion of accounts from social networks or from payment service providers. Deplatforming usually significantly reduces the public visibility of the organizations or individuals concerned and often also their financial income. It is a very powerful tool available to private platforms. "

The effectiveness of the deplatforming strategy is controversial. Critics argue it "doesn't work very well yet". Deplatforming leads to a reduction in reach and in some cases also in revenue; the actors concerned would, however, switch to alternative offers. After the crowdfunding platform Patreon banned several alt-right activists from their platform, they founded their own platform Hatreon . There are also indications that those affected would radicalize further. In the Handelsblatt it says:

“The fact is: Deplatforming does not lead to the hate preachers stopping to spread their messages. You just look for a new stage. Apart from the big platforms, smaller, more radical communities are emerging again and again - for example the now discontinued 8chan forum , in which the Christchurch and El Paso assassins published their manifestos before they committed mass murders. "

Critics also complain that deplatforming amounts to restricting freedom of expression . In some cases, individual platforms, e.g. B. the company Google , such a dominant position that their terms of use could almost dictate to end users as well as companies and organizations how they should use their platform. The writer Tina Uebel describes deplatforming as “just another word for refusing to discuss: One wants a homogeneous world in which everyone agrees”.

Examples

The neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer was terminated by its web host GoDaddy in 2017 after the right-wing extremist demonstrations in Charlottesville , and Google also declined to host the website.

After the attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, the social network Gab , on which the attacker announced his act, was deplatformed . The payment services PayPal and Stripe closed the accounts of Gab, the web host GoDaddy also terminated the contracts in this case.

In May 2019, Facebook deleted the pages of several well-known right-wing populists , including those of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones , comedian Paul Joseph Watson , right-wing activist Lauren Southern and journalist Milo Yiannopoulos . The platforms Apple , Spotify , Twitter and YouTube had already deleted the presence of the online portal InfoWars , for which Alex Jones and Paul Joseph Watson worked on a regular basis, in 2018.

In August 2019, YouTube deleted the right-wing activist Martin Sellner's channel . After protests by Sellner's lawyers, the channel was restored.

In June 2020, the Reddit platform will delete the “the_donald” subreddit operated by fans of President Donald Trump , which netzpolitik.org considered deplatforming.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Milena Merten: Deplatforming - When social networks turn off the microphone. Handelsblatt , October 7, 2019, accessed on February 29, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Werner Bogula: Digital Platforms for International Cultural Relations: Secure Communication and Cooperation on the Net. Stuttgart: Institute for Foreign Relations . 2019. https://doi.org/10.17901/AKBP1.08.2019 p. 46.
  3. ↑ a b Jürgen Schmieder: Schreier without a stage. Tages-Anzeiger , May 3, 2019, accessed on February 29, 2020 .
  4. ^ A b Markus Reuter: Deplatforming: Great dominoes of hate in social networks. Netzpolitik.org , June 30, 2020, accessed on August 10, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b This is how the scene on the right acts in the network. Deutschlandfunk , February 22, 2020, accessed on February 29, 2020 .
  6. ^ A b Angela Gruber: Neo-Nazis create their own online services. Der Spiegel , August 15, 2017, accessed on February 29, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Ijoma Mangold: I ask you not to laugh! Die Zeit , February 5, 2020, accessed on February 29, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Christopher Carbone: After Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, Gab banned by PayPal, GoDaddy, Medium, suspended by two other platforms. Fox News , October 28, 2018, accessed February 29, 2020 .
  9. ^ Jürgen Schmieder: Provocateurs without a platform. Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 3, 2019, accessed on February 29, 2020 .
  10. ↑ The final battle of the "Fake News" king: How Alex Jones strikes back. Stern (magazine) , August 7, 2018, accessed February 29, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Michael Hanfeld: Identity boss Sellner is back. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , August 29, 2019, accessed on February 29, 2020 .