15,000 Websites That Spread Terror and Hate

15 April 2012

Image of Osama bin Laden posted with an audio recording on a militant website in March 2008

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

Hate groups and terrorists are increasingly using the Internet to spread their beliefs. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in California says the problem is getting worse.

The center has released its latest “Digital Terror and Hate" report. Rick Eaton is a researcher with the group. He says the internet offers a lot of information for would-be terrorists.

RICK EATON: “Different explosives, manuals and lessons in remote detonation, cell phone detonators, rockets.”

There is also guidance in kidnapping and guerrilla warfare.

RICK EATON: “And many times these are spiced with the political philosophy on not only how to do it, but where you should do it and what targets you should attack.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is a Jewish human rights organization. This is its fourteenth year reporting on Internet terror and hate. The new report identified about fifteen thousand websites considered problematic. They included news groups, social network pages, YouTube videos and games said to incite hatred. Officials say there was only one such website when the center first launched the project in nineteen ninety-five.

Rick Eaton says al-Qaida was one of the first terrorist groups to use digital technology. He says the group’s online presence continues to grow.