Tiffany Palapo

Tiffany is a 14-year-old in 8th grade at LREI in NYC. Her topic is cults and online radicalization. She chose this topic because she has always been interested in conspiracy theories, how they were brought up, and who, if ever, acted upon them.

A Journalists Point Of View On Extremism

by Tiffany Palapo

At 2:00pm on March 1st, my group mates and I got on a zoom meeting with Cloee Cooper. Cloee Cooper is a Senior Research Analyst at Political Research Association, a news website.

During our interview, we talked about the experiences Cloee’s experiences with interviewing extremists and what changes she hopes to make when publishing articles. She shared her thought’s about what the internet is doing both good and bad. We also talked to her about the future of radicalization, and she thinks that it will always exist, but her hopes are that with more publicity on the issue, awareness can be spread and it will simmer down. When we asked more questions about far-right activists though, she said she was growing uncomfortable with the constant talking about the topic so we ended our interview soon after.

by Tiffany Palapo

At 9:00 am on the 25th, my group and I -minus Holly, she was sick- met with Jason Schultz in person. Jason works at NYU as a professor of clinical law. His class is all about the laws against hate speech online so he knew a lot about the lawful side of radicalization online.

One of the important things I learned from Jason was about why extremist/radicalization groups got away with so much online. A main reason is because of The First Amendment, it states that “Congress make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise.” Basically, it protects freedom of speech. The reason why online radical groups get away with so many things they say/post are because of the blurred lines between freedom of speech and indication of taking (violent) action. A perfect example of this is if somebody was bullying a person, a blurred difference would be “Go beat up —-, their no good,” vs. “—- lives at this address, goes to school at 8:15 in the morning and leaves at 3:15.” The first example could easily be sued, however, the second example could not because it is not outright saying ‘go be violent’ to said person, their just stating something on the internet.

There are many other important and helpful things that I have learned from Jason. He was a very helpful source and will definitely play a big role in our project.

by Tiffany Palapo

On the 24th, at 2:00 my group and I interviewed Denise Zaraya and Andrew King of Integral Ad Science. Denise was one of the essential people to the start of the organization. Andrew is one of the main people who build on the monitoring technology, updating it whenever a new problem comes up. We met with them on zoom.

I learned from them that having technology to monitor hate speech online would benefit not only consumers but also companies. With monitors available, social media companies don’t need to resort to tactics that would cause people to loose. For example, went Elon Musk recently obtained Twitter, to lessen the spread of bots, he suggested introducing subscriptions to twitter. While this plan would have worked immensely to lessen the amount of bots, it would have deterred many people who don’t have the finances or resources. They also spoke about the importance of monitors for hate speech because of how in recent times, everything has been online based. Most of the population uses social media as a form entertainment and communication, leaving lots of people vulnerable to be exposed towards violence/hate speech.

Denise and Andrew talked about various different things that will benefit my project with the online/advertising portion. They’re perspective has given me ideas of what to research for the advertising and more general online based hate.

by Tiffany Palapo

On Friday the 13th, at 12:30, my group and I had an in-person interview with Kalil Oldham in his office. During our interview with Kalil, my group and I focused on the overall effect of radicalization, the groups that are the most targeted, why they are targeted the most, and myths. Kalil’s position as director of equity and community means that he has gone through studies about topics such as radicalization and extremism. He knows about the mental and conspiracy aspects.

During the interview, my group and I asked Kalil of what group of people are the most recruited/affected by online radicalization and why they are so. He responded that young/teen white males are the most affected. This is so because of the multiple platforms that they are on online, games, and social media, making them easily accessible as a vulnerable person. These are males who don’t feel they belong, in any group or clique, males who feel that nobody is truly listening to them. Then radicalization groups take advantage of this, acting as a source of comfort and understanding, bonding with them through gaming sessions or memes. Kalil also mentioned the irony of this, young white males being the most affected group, because they are the majority, the stereotypical ‘fits in everywhere’ group.

The interview with Kalil helped build on the things we saw online, and gave them more perspective and details. He also recommended us a video to watch and organizations to contact. He also made me and my group aware of the psychological side of all of this, giving us another area of our topic to look into, to be able to have a deeper knowledge for our project.

by Tiffany Palapo

At 12:30 on January 20th, my group mates and I got on a google meeting with Patrick Riccards in Kalil’s office. Patrick is the CEO of an organization called ‘Life After Hate’. LAH is a nonprofit organization that focuses on helping former extremists get rid of their hate and help them to lead a more compassionate life.

Patrick is the first CEO of LAH to not have been a former extremist, so getting his perspective on things was insightful. We spoke to him about a range of things, from how he became interested in his field of work to how social media plays a role in radicalization. One of the many things I learned from him is why it can be challenging for extremists/supremacists to go through the process of healing/becoming a new person. First of all, they’d have to accept that they’re at fault not only to others but also to themselves, the process is really only beneficial if one truly believes that they were horrible and they were not doing the right things. Second, it’s the fear of going back to a normal life, one that is not decided by someone other than themself. Recruited supremacists are essentially in a cult, they’re whole life is dictated by their ‘leader’, their words are manipulated, their actions monitored and their thoughts processed; so going back to a life that is led only by themselves can apparently become really frightening.

I’ve learned many other things from Patrick, things that will definitely benefit me and my group’s project. From talking with Patrick, we’ve also been giving ideas of who to talk to and what to visit, allowing us more opportunities to learn and educate ourselves.