Notorious Anti-Semitic Hacker Calls Trolling A ‘Patriotic Act’
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
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]
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
