White Supremacist Groups Openly Exist in Second Life Despite Community Standards Rules Prohibiting Racist Expression

At least five white supremacist-oriented groups exist in Second Life, as of this writing, and are visible in Search when you enter "White Pride" and other variations of those terms.  I contacted Linden Lab about this a couple weeks ago, but haven't received a response from the company, even though these groups are in clear violation of Second Life's official Community Standards:

The use of derogatory or demeaning language or images in reference to another Resident's race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation is never allowed in Second Life.

One group (above) openly displays the Celtic Cross, associated with neo-Nazis, the KKK, and other racist groups, while another (below) references the "sacred 14 words", which is also associated with racist hate groups:

"14 Words" is a reference to the most popular white supremacist slogan in the world: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children." The slogan was coined by David Lane, a member of the white supremacist terrorist group known as The Order (Lane died in prison in 2007). The term reflects the primary white supremacist worldview in the late 20th and early 21st centuries: that unless immediate action is taken, the white race is doomed to extinction by an alleged "rising tide of color" purportedly controlled and manipulated by Jews.

Another group purports to run a "whiteembassy" in one SL sim, "the place for the whiterace". I looked into the existence of white supremacist groups in Second Life when one SLer in the Avatars Against Trump Flickr group mentioned encountering a member of one in her own left-leaning discussion group: "We'd put up with his Libertarian agenda of attacking Progressivism," she writes, "but when he started with stuff about white being oppressed by everyone else - I tossed him. Went to look a few hours later to see just what sort of person I'd tossed and if there might have been any mistakes - and I found this."

Membership isn't listed in these groups, so it's difficult to know how large they are. However, white supremacists have been known to set up shop and disproportionately influence other Internet platforms which allow anonymous users (as with Reddit and 4Chan). It's surprising that Linden Lab, which just made an official statement against Trump's Muslim ban, has not yet done anything to address these hate groups -- but perhaps they're crafting a policy to deal with them.

Comments

[sirhc deSantis]

'WP = small hands (tm valid would i lie respect the office also tm' signed mongrel Brit (person of pallor) thrrrrp.

[Violet]

Don't forget to include this racial Pride Group-
"Black Pride"
A group for black avatars to meet each other and express their pride. Get the title "Black and Proud." Black men black women African American men African American women African-American men African-American women

I also see 5 Black panther Groups that seem to be attached to the RL groups- One I looked at has the fist symbol-- seems to me f your going to police the community standards you do it fairly- or simply let Linden do their job-

My personal opinion is all races stuff should be banned- but that's me---
I a female Latino living in Miami and am tired of all this tension- just get along-

[morgan]

This is part of a bigger problem that Linden Labs does not enforce the community standards in general. When you can send in numerous abuse reports on someone who consistently and aggressively violates the community standards, we're left to assume that abuse reports aren't reviewed. I guess they've decided that it isn't worth it. I can understand that, but if there is no enforcement, then the community standards should be taken down, or they should be up front with the community and say that these are mere suggestions they are putting forth to cover their asses, and that there is no administrative enforcement of these standards. Either way, they should cancel the 'report abuse' feature to stop giving people false hope.

[Rin]

Back in 2006/7/8 there have been very active political groups in SL. Some more sane then others, some very interesting and full of smart people, some playing radicals and pretending that what they did mattered ... but in one thing they have been united. To confront and eventually drive out the fascists whereever they showed up. And it did work for the most part as there have been always people to constantly look for new groups and places and report them until LL had to take action or they moved away on thier own.
Now many of those things have been besically griefing, but I am not going to have mercy with those people.

Sadly, this is all gone now and I suspect that LL does not have the manpower to monitor all groups, what means that radicals form all sides can feel secure enough to operate openly and are not dragged to the public, shamed and pointed out in their stupidity and told to stop poluting this world with their nationalistic and fascist nonsense.

[Amanda Dallin]

The Celtic cross does not represent the neo-Nazis, the KKK, and other racist groups. They have used it but they don't own the symbol anymore than Hindu or Janist use of a Swastika represents support for the Nazi Party. Swastika's were used by many ancient cultures going back 12,000 to 15,000 years ago. Celtic Crosses were used in a Christian context since at least the 9th century CE and probably earlier. Context is what matters. We shouldn't let hate groups steal our symbols.

[Fred]

I'm also worried about groups related to ISIS (2 groups) or any other form of radical islam, or racial dividers like BLM (5 groups). And groups related to communism that have killed more people than the Nazis ever did (7 - 8 groups).

[Gene]

I see a lot of groups for white slaves for black men, white slaves for muslim men, etc, but I guess that's ok.