City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research CUNY Graduate Center 2009 Combating Global White Supremacy in the Digital Era Jessie Daniels CUNY Hunter College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_pubs/197 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact:
[email protected] 09_120_Ch09.qxd 4/21/09 5:31 AM Page 159 CHAPTER NINE Combating Global White Supremacy in the Digital Era In cyberspace the First Amendment is a local ordinance. —John Perry Barlow In 2002 Tore W. Tvedt, founder of the hate group Vigrid and a Norwegian cit- izen, was sentenced to time in prison for posting racist and anti-Semitic propa- ganda on a website. The Anti-Racism Center in Oslo filed a police complaint against Tvedt. On Vigrid’s website, Tvedt puts forward an ideology that mixes neo-Nazism, racism, and religion. Tvedt was tried and convicted in the Asker and Baerum District Court on the outskirts of Oslo. The charges were six counts of violating Norway’s antiracism law and one count each of a weapons violation and interfering with police. He was sentenced to seventy-five days in prison, with forty-five days suspended, and two years’ probation. Activists welcomed this as the first conviction for racism on the Internet in Norway. Following Tvedt’s release from prison, his Vigrid website is once again online.1 In contrast to the Norwegian response, many Americans seem to view white supremacy online as speech obviously protected under the First Amendment.