Webhosting Companies Continue Allowing Extremist Groups to Host Violence-Inciting Content Online
With the U.S. midterm elections now in the rearview mirror, the upcoming 116th Congress has signaled that tech issues will be a major part of its upcoming agenda. U.S. Senator Mark Warner has stated that “the era of the Wild West in social media is coming to an end,” and other top Democrats agreed, saying that tech companies’ “self-regulation hasn’t worked.” Issues such as data privacy and antitrust questions are on the docket, but extremism online must stay at the forefront as well, especially as ISIS losses in physical terrorities have made the fact that the terror group “continues to pump out terror content online” all the more important. Further, as ISIS and other extremists continue their shift in online tactics towards less traditional methods, web hosting companies have recently become the subject of much greater scrutiny, and these companies’ refusal to move against bad actors on their websites is alarming.
Last week, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) found that a former version of the website PasteThis.At, a text and photo bulletin message board that was used for ISIS propaganda distribution, was taken down only to be replaced by PasteThis.To. The new .To site, with its loose terms of service and absence of a content report button, was recreated with a domain based out of Tonga. Pro-ISIS groups Telegram channels have encouraged other ISIS supporters to migrate to the new site and it has since shown a significant increase in activity. Among the at least 28 posts from last week, many included calls for violence or propaganda photos. The California-based company responsible for hosting the .To domain, Tonic Domains Corporation (Tonic) refused to remove the site even after CEP alerted them to its use by ISIS’s online supporters. By refusing to take action, it appears that Tonic is a willing participant in spreading terrorist propaganda.
A different webhosting company, Epik, has agreed to host Gab, the “free speech” social network notably used by Pittsburgh synagogue shooting suspect Robert Bowers. Epik’s CEO, Rob Monster, wrote on the company blog that it was a difficult decision to do so, but one ultimately made in the interests of freedom of speech and opposing censorship. Gab’s former hosting provider, Joyent, ceased providing services to Gab after the October 27 attack, but the site went back online on November 4 after Epik became the site’s registrar. Despite Gab’s claim that they don’t allow “direct threats,” there are several threats and calls to violence on the site and its users have been praising Bowers’ actions. The British neo-Nazi group named the System Resistance Network (SRN) also maintains a page on Gab. SRN was founded by Alex Davies, who also founded the banned terrorist group National Action.
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PasteThis.To A Major Conduit For ISIS Propaganda, Domain Company Refuses To Take Action
Use of the bulletin website PasteThis.To by ISIS’s online supporters has increased significantly since the site was first mentioned in pro-ISIS Telegram channels on October 30. A small percentage of content that was previously on the site’s predecessor, PasteThis.At, has been transferred to the PasteThis.To site. ISIS online supporters have made at least 28 posts on PasteThis.To this week, including propaganda photos, web security information and links to other PasteThis.To pages calling for violence.
The company responsible for the .To domain refuses to remove PasteThis.To. Tonic Domains Corporation (Tonic), registered in California, is the national DNS registration authority for Tonga and “maintains the primary nameserver for the .TO zone” and “is the ultimate authority for all domain names in the .TO zone.” CEP corresponded with Tonic, alerting them to the use of the PasteThis.To site by ISIS’s online supporters, however Tonic refuses to take action. Tonic has taken money from whoever registered the website and the company is choosing to keep the site up, making Tonic a willing participant in spreading terrorist propaganda.
Based on Tonic’s website, it is unclear what activities they prohibit. According to their FAQ, the company takes a hard line against spam and using a homonym domain name for malicious or illegal purposes. Tonic does not explicitly prohibit websites from conducting other illegal business, or promoting violence or terrorism. Additionally, Tonic does not provide registrant contact information. ISIS’s supporters will continue to use Tonic’s services, and those of other companies such as Cloudflare, to call for violence and spread terror as long as the companies permit it.
Image Including A Severed Head And Murdered Man Used To Advertise The ISIS Video “Swords Of Jihad” On PasteThis.To, On The .To Domain Controlled By The Tonic Domain Corporation. Image Has Been Obscured.
ISIS Call For Knife Attacks On PasteThis.To, On The .To Domain Controlled By The Tonic Domain Corporation.
ISIS Call For Violence On PasteThis.To, On The .To Domain Controlled By The Tonic Domain Corporation.
Australia Knife Attack
On Friday, November 9, a Melbourne man, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, killed one person and injured two others with a knife before being fatally shot by police. Ali had gas cylinders in his car which were not detonated. ISIS claimed later in the day that the perpetrator of the “ramming and stabbing operation in Melbourne city in southeastern Australia is an Islamic State fighter and the operation was implemented in response to target coalition state citizens.” The attack follows online propaganda threatening Australia by pro-ISIS groups in early October and late September.
Image Celebrating Australia Attack, Located On Telegram On November 9, 2018.
Image Made By Pro-ISIS Online Group, Located On Telegram On October 4, 2018.
Image Threatening Australia Made By Pro-ISIS Group Muharir Al-Ansar, Located On Telegram On September 22, 2018.
Gab Users Celebrate Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter, Other Users Call For Violence
Users of Gab, the “free speech” social network notably used by the alleged Pittsburgh synagogue shooting suspect Robert Bowers, have been praising his actions. Despite Gab’s claim that they don’t allow “direct threats,” there are several threats and calls to violence on the site. Gab’s former hosting provider Joyent ceased providing services to Gab after the October 27 attack; however, the site went back online on November 4 after Epik.com became the site’s registrar. Epik’s CEO, Rob Monster, wrote on the company blog that it was a difficult decision, but one ultimately made in the interests of freedom of speech and opposing censorship. The British neo-Nazi group the System Resistance Network (SRN) maintains a page on Gab. SRN was founded by Alex Davies, who also founded the banned terrorist group National Action. While SRN has not directly called for violence on their Gab page, the group has posted threats via flyers in UK.
Image Praising Synagogue Shooter Robert Bowers On Gab, Located November 6, 2018.
User Praising Robert Bowers On Gab, Located November 6, 2018.
User Threatening Jews And Praising Robert Bowers On Gab, Located November 6, 2018.
User Praising Robert Bowers, Calling For Additional Violence On Gab, Located On November 6, 2018.
User Calling For Violence On Gab, November 6, 2018.
UK Neo-Nazi Group System Resistance Network Page On Gab, November 9, 2018.
New ISIS Video Released November 4 On Several Websites
ISIS’s self-proclaimed Barakah province in Syria released a new video on November 4, titled “Assaults of the Monotheists #2.” The video shows ISIS fighters engaged in combat against Syrian government troops, as well as corpses and the maltreatment of dead bodies. The video was originally released on at least 20 websites in addition to Telegram: pc.cd, Mediafire, Microsoft One Drive, the Internet Archive, Top4top, mail.ru, Dailymotion, Google Drive, Google Photos, YouTube, file.fm, mega.nz, nofile.io, ok.ru, tune.pk, vidbom, Vimeo, Amazon Cloud Drive, Vidio, Yadi.sk and Dropbox. Four to five days later, the video was still available on three websites in addition to Telegram: Vidio, tune.pk and file.fm.
“Assaults Of The Monotheists #2” On Video, Four Days After It Was Uploaded.
BACKGROUND
Democrats Have Signaled A Willing To Investigate Tech Companies And Put An End To The “Wild West” Era Of Social Media. “Democrats’ takeover of the House is likely to result in even more hearings into the power of big tech companies – just on different subjects than Republicans are interested in. Experts in technology policy said that they expect Democratic lawmakers, including incoming House committee chairs, to ramp up questions about data privacy, antitrust enforcement and the role of companies such as Facebook and Google in elections … Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Penn., who is the top Democrat on a House technology subcommittee and could become its chairman, has said that self-regulation by companies such as Facebook ‘hasn’t worked.’ He has called for the creation of a new federal agency to protect people’s data online … ‘Congress has to step up and establish much needed guard rails on social media to protect our democracy and American consumers. The era of the Wild West in social media is coming to an end,’ Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., a co-sponsor of legislation to regulate political ads, said in a statement on Wednesday.” (David Ingram, “The ‘Wild West’ No Longer: House Dems Eye Silicon Valley Crackdown,” NBC News, 11/8/18)
ISIS “Continues To Pump Out Terror Content Online” Even As Physical Territory Losses Occur. “Islamic State, the jihadist group that once held control of large parts of Iraq and Syria, is still ‘very much a problem’ as it continues to pump out terror content online, a European security official has said. Julian King, the EU’s commissioner for the security union, said Tuesday that, although the Islamist militant organization has suffered a drop in its global influence and presence on the ground, it continues to exploit the internet as a means of promoting its extremist ideology.” (Ryan Browne, “ISIS May Be Quashed On The Ground, But It’s Still A ‘Problem’ Online, EU Security Official Says,” CNBC, 11/6/18)