History Stormfront_(website)

1 history

1.1 history
1.2 national attention
1.3 controversies
1.4 public profile , later history

history
early history

stormfront began in 1990 online bulletin board white nationalist david duke s campaign united states senator louisiana. name stormfront chosen connotations of political or military front (such german nazi stormtroopers, sturmabteilung or sa) , analogy weather fronts invokes idea of tumultuous storm ending in cleansing. opened public in 1994, , stormfront.org website founded in 1996 don black, becoming first website associated white supremacy.

until point, attempts @ using internet white pride movement met limited success, stormfront became popular growth of internet @ time, according black. former grand wizard of ku klux klan in 1970s , member of national socialist white people s party, black first received computer training while imprisoned role in abortive 1981 attempt overthrow government of dominica.

national attention

the site received considerable attention in united states, in reports such hate.com, 2000 cbs/hbo documentary television special focused on perceived threat of white nationalist , white supremacist organizations on internet. narrated morris dees of southern poverty law center (splc), featured interviews black , son derek interviews other white nationalist groups , organizations.

controversies

in 2002, google complied french , german legislation forbidding links websites host white supremacist, holocaust-denying or historical revisionist material removing stormfront.org french , german indexes.

stormfront returned news in may 2003, when fox news channel host bill o reilly reported on racially segregated prom being held in georgia , posted poll on website asking viewers if send own children one. next night o reilly announced not report results of poll appeared stormfront had urged members vote in poll, skewing numbers.

doug hanks, candidate city council of charlotte, north carolina, withdrew nomination in august 2005 after revealed had posted on stormfront. hanks had posted more 4,000 comments on 3 years, including 1 in described black people rabid beasts . hanks said postings designed gain trust of stormfront users him write novel: did thought needed establish myself credible white nationalist.

in 2012 italian police blocked website , arrested 4 people allegedly inciting racial hatred. measure taken after publication of blacklist of prominent jews , people support jews , immigrants on italian section of website. list included possible targets of violent attacks, including gypsy camps. subsequent year, italian police raided homes of 35 stormfront posters, in november 2013. 1 man arrested in mantua had 2 loaded weapons, hand grenade casing, , flag swastika in possession.

according 2014 two-year study southern poverty law center (splc) s intelligence report, registered stormfront users have been disproportionately responsible of lethal hate crimes , mass killings since site put in 1995. in 5 years leading 2014, stormfront members murdered 100 people. of these, 77 massacred 1 stormfront user, anders behring breivik, norwegian terrorist perpetrated 2011 norway attacks.

public profile , later history

the total of registered users shy of 300,000, astounding number site run ex-felon , former alabama klan leader. , doesn t include thousands of visitors never register users. @ press time, stormfront ranked internet s 13,648th popular site, while naacp site, comparison, ranked 32,640th. – year in hate , extremism, 2015

in 2001 usa today article, journalist tara mckelvey called stormfront visited white supremacist site on net . number of registered users on site rose 5,000 in january 2002 52,566 in june 2005, year 338th largest internet forum, receiving more 1,500 hits each weekday , ranking in top 1 percent of internet sites in terms of use. june 2008, site attracting more 40,000 unique users each day. operating site west palm beach, florida headquarters black s full-time job, , assisted son , 40 moderators. public profile of site attracted attention groups such simon wiesenthal center , anti-defamation league (adl). adl describes stormfront having served veritable supermarket of online hate, stocking shelves many forms of anti-semitism , racism .

in 2006, southern poverty law center (splc) reported discussion on stormfront in white nationalists encouraged join u.s. military learn skills necessary winning race war. 2008 united states presidential candidacy of african-american democrat barack obama cause of significant concern stormfront members: site received 2,000 new members day after obama elected president, , went offline temporarily due increase in visitors. stormfront posters saw obama representing new multicultural era in united states replacing white rule , feared support illegal immigration , affirmative action, , make white people minority group.

during 2008 primary campaigns, new york times mistakenly reported stormfront had donated $500 republican presidential hopeful ron paul; in fact, site owner don black had contributed money paul. following april 2009 shooting, richard poplawski, poster on site, charged ambushing , killing 3 pittsburgh police officers , attempting kill 9 others.

during 2016 election season, site founder don black said site experiencing huge spikes in traffic corresponding controversial statements donald trump, popular among white supremacists. in response, black upgraded site s servers.

black s son derek, long-time participant in site, has disavowed beliefs held father , family , stormfront site, according article in washington post. through years in college, derek black came feel white nationalism not supportable.

in august 2017, stormfront s domain name seized registrar displaying bigotry, discrimination or hatred. earlier same month, white supremacist news , commentary website daily stormer had been removed public internet involvement in unite right rally.

the site came online on september 29, 2017. of october 2017, services keep site online provided tucows, network solutions, , cloudflare.