On the social networking service VK, the Canadian Nationalist Front calls for a ban on “third world immigration,” Blood & Honour envisions “white victory” and photos show the Soldiers of Odin meeting in Calgary. Canadian far-right groups purged from mainstream social media sites last year have found a new home on less discerning online platforms willing to host them and their racist views. Although a crackdown that followed the March 15 attack on New Zealand mosques saw them purged from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, they have resurfaced on Russia’s VK, Gab and Canund. But while their online presence hasn’t been stamped out, it has been significantly diminished, according to experts. (…) “It’s minimized their online presence and reach, and it’s disrupted their online networks and ability to attract the level of attention they once had on mainstream platforms.”
But it has also pushed them into “darker spaces of the internet,” where they can still attract followers, said Scrivens, whose research focuses on extremists’ use of the internet. “Unfortunately, this is the best strategy we have right now for dealing with extremism online,” he said. “They shouldn’t be on mainstream platforms for laypeople to stumble across, but it’s clear that by removing them from these spaces, they’re bound to go somewhere else.” Canada’s extreme right uses the internet “to create an online culture of fear, hatred and mistrust,” according to Canada’s 2018 annual Public Report on the Terrorist Threat to Canada.
via globalnews.ca: Kicked off Facebook, Canadian far-right groups resurface on the internet’s fringes