The Daily Stormer

The Daily Stormer
Web address dailystormer.com
Commercial? No
Type of site
 Blog
Registration Required to comment
Available in English
Editor Andrew Anglin
Launched July 4, 2013
Alexa rank
 Increase 36,165 (Global March 2015)
Current status Online

The Daily Stormer is an American blog, with a Neo-Nazi and White nationalist editorial stance. Its editor is Andrew Anglin.

Anglin founded the blog on July 4, 2013, deciding to write a faster-paced website than his previous one, Total Fascism, which had launched in the previous year. Guest writers have included weev and Fredrick Brennan. The website has been noted to be growing by the Southern Poverty Law Center, although other White nationalist authors have taken issue with its content and tone.

The Daily Stormer also orchestrates what it calls the "Troll Army", involved in Internet trolling of figures whom it deems aim to curtail freedom of speech, receiving attention for its campaign against British MP Luciana Berger, who is Jewish.

Description

Background

Anglin (born circa 1985 in Ohio) launched a website titled Total Fascism in 2012. It praised Adolf Hitler's art and the Greek Golden Dawn party, while criticizing Alex Jones, whom he believes is not critical of Jews. Feeling that its articles were too long, The Daily Stormer was launched on July 4, 2013, with shorter articles and a more colloquial style. The website is registered in the name of Anglin's father Greg, who runs a Christian-inspired counselling service in Worthington, Ohio. The website offers pro-Russian coverage of the conflict in Ukraine.[1][2]

Anglin claims to have as a teenager read "all that Communist, Jewish stuff" before aligning himself to National Socialism. He uses The Daily Stormer "a means to propagandize people...to get them to look at the world in a certain way" because "there’s an opportunity for a new right-wing to enter American politics" as "the present situation is so unsettling that it’s necessary to have an extreme response". Anglin claims to spend 70 hours a week writing on the website.[2]

Recognition

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has described the site as "the newest up and comer in the heated competition to rule the hate web", which "has in the last six months often topped the oldest and largest hate site on the web, Stormfront, in terms of reach and page views, based on Alexa data."[1]

In October 2014, The Jewish Chronicle wrote that The Daily Stormer "posts hundreds of racist articles targeting black people, Muslims and Jews".[3] He has previously made a video of himself at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, mocking the Holocaust and questioning its death toll.[3] The website promotes the #HitlerWasRight hashtag on Twitter.[3]

According to the SPLC, Anglin has been criticized by other White Nationalist online writers for his focus on Neo-Nazism ahead of "preserving and protecting the White race".[4] The same organization has noted that other White Nationalist websites have taken issue with what they see as low-brow coverage on The Daily Stormer, as well as its denouncement of Christian Identity or defense of Christianity in general, although others have praised its reach and influence.[1]

Anglin has also been noted by the Anti-Defamation League for a post on the website, suggesting that both major U.S. political parties are run by Jews and support mass immigration from third-world countries.[5]

Notable articles

Hacker and Internet troll weev wrote an article on the website after his release from prison, admitting his new views as a Neo-Nazi and his opposition to Jews who had "abused our compassion to build an empire of wickedness the likes the world has never seen."[6]

Fredrick Brennan, founder of the online community 8chan, wrote an article on The Daily Stormer encouraging eugenics, based on his own experiences of having brittle bone disease.[7]

The site attracted some attention for its support of the Reclaim Australia rallies, claiming that "the people that you’ll find at Reclaim Australia are very valuable to us in the long term. They’re on the right track and, with our guidance, they can be turned into hardcore Nazis".[8]

"Troll Army"

The Daily Stormer orchestrates what it calls a "Troll Army", involved in Internet trolling.[9]

Luciana Berger

It came to attention in October 2014 in a campaign against British Labour politician Luciana Berger, a Jewish Member of Parliament. A man had been sent to prison for sending her abusive messages over Twitter[3] and The Daily Stormer encouraged its readers to send her antisemitic messages, as long as they did not promote violence.[3] It also gave out guidelines on how to limit traceability and create anonymous e-mail and Twitter accounts.[3] Berger claimed to have received 400 abusive messages in one week.[3] The abuse was brought up in the British Parliament, where Speaker John Bercow deemed it "beneath contempt".[10]

Mariam Veiszadeh

The Troll Army launched another campaign in February 2015 against Mariam Veiszadeh, an Afghan Australian Muslim activist who demanded that a T-shirt she perceived as bigoted be withdrawn from sale at Woolworths. A woman was arrested for sending her abusive messages,[9] and Anglin interpreted Veiszadeh's actions as curbing freedom of speech, which "should be responded to with the most ridiculous conceivable hateful speech" because "the vast majority of White people do not think name-calling should be an imprisonable offense."[9] Around 3,000 users defended her with the hashtag #IStandWithMariam.[11]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Beirich, Heidi (March 11, 2015). "Blog Wars: The Daily Stormer and its Racist Frenemies". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Dixon Kavanaugh, Shane (March 20, 2014). "The Man Bringing Back the Nazi Movement in America". Vocativ.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Dysch, Marcus (October 30, 2014). "Neo-Nazi gave out internet abuse tips in campaign against Luciana Berger". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  4. ↑ Hankes, Keegan (October 23, 2014). "White nationalism’s exploding civil war". Salon. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  5. ↑ "After Executive Action on Immigration, Extremists Lash Out". Anti-Defamation League. November 26, 2014. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Convicted hacker and darling of the left 'Weev' emerges from prison a Neo-Nazi white supremacist". Breitbart. October 4, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
  7. ↑ Herzog, Chrizella (March 8, 2015). "When the Internet Breeds Hate". The Diplomatic Courier. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  8. ↑ Safi, Michael (April 3, 2015). "Anti-Islamic group Reclaim Australia plans 16 rallies across the country". The Guardian. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Whiteman, Hilary (February 28, 2015). "I will not be silenced: Australian Muslim fights Twitter 'troll army'". CNN. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  10. ↑ "MP wants action over 'vitriolic' Twitter abuse of colleague". BBC News. October 29, 2014. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  11. ↑ Judah, Sam (February 24, 2015). "Why thousands are standing behind one Muslim lawyer". BBC News. Retrieved March 4, 2015.

External links