Notorious Anti-Semitic Hacker Calls Trolling A ‘Patriotic Act’
Image by Wikipedia
By Sam Kestenbaum April 3, 2017
Andrew Auernheimer, a notorious computer hacker known for his anti-Semitic rhetoric, views his online trolling as an important political act.
“Being offensive is a political act,” he told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “If something pushes up against polite civilization, it’s for a purpose.”
Auernheimer has been a consultant for the Daily Stormer, which the Southern Poverty Law Center calls the country’s “top hate site.” The Daily Stormer orchestrates aggressive trolling campaigns and was behind a failed neo-Nazi march on the Jewish community of Whitefish, Montana.
Keegan Hankes, an SPLC researcher, said Auernheimer and the Daily Stormer’s editor Andrew Anglin are among the “primary innovators” in how trolling has become a tool for far-right extremists, the AP reported.
“The reality is internet trolling is entertaining. People love to watch it. It’s become a national sport,” Auernheimer said. “It’s something that anyone can jump into.”
Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected]
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
