Argentinian journalist Julio López recently discovered a Spanish-speaking hate network by creating a computer program that scans websites for hate speech. A journalist and hacker by trade, López originally sought to search for groups like QAnon, wondering if there were similar groups in Argentina. His study unexpectedly uncovered a secret network of alt-right, Nazi groups in Latin America that perpetuate conspiracy theories related to Jews. “I found out there are groups like QAnon in Argentina—there are many—and they’re large and have done a tremendous job” infiltrating the web, López told JNS. After creating computer code utilizing terminology that is considered hate speech, his program scanned thousands of sites, exposing a “breeding ground” for hate that he says is experiencing a “boom.” “The first one I found had a YouTube channel with 220,000 subscribers, 3,000 hours of video and over 24 million views,” he explained. “They were recording on a TV studio to replicate regular media content.” The channel, named TLV1 to pose as a legitimate Israel-based news site TLV1Radio, violated YouTube community standards and was eventually taken down for inciting hate. Conspiracy theories perpetuated, according to López, such as “theories like the Andean plan for Jews to merge a nation into Patagonia, and the idea of a new order governed by key positions that are occupied by Jews”; ideas about “a superior race and the male man as the center of the family”; as well as portraying Jews as “immigrants who steal jobs.” This particular YouTube channel, he explained, spanned multiple countries including Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Colombia and Spain, and had linked Facebook groups in order to reach the maximum number of people. It operated for three years before López’s advocacy got YouTube to shut it down. “However, Facebook allowed their groups to stay open while YouTube banned them; therefore they still had the power to regroup,” he said. A second group that López found was “more militarized and had more than 80,000 subscribers, wore black and used Nazi fonts and icons … recruiting young people and nurturing them with these ideals. We also found hundreds and hundreds of Telegram channels and satellite groups on Facebook, just waiting to regroup and take action.” According to López, a self-proclaimed “tech geek who loves media and happened to end up with a microphone in front of me”—López hosts the most listened to radio show in the country, “Lanata Sin Filtro”—his algorithm also uncovered hate speech in the network towards the LGBTQ community, women and reproductive rights, and other minorities, and calls to disobey the state. He said Argentine media originally refused to broadcast his findings (which López said occurred out of fear of the sites losing financial partnerships with Facebook and Google) until pro-Israel NGO Fuente Latina secured him an interview on CNN Español and other major news networks.

via algemeiner: Argentinian Journalist Exposes Antisemitic, Neo-Nazi Groups in Latin America

Categories: Rechtsextremismus