Stormfront.org is perhaps the most well known hate site on the Internet. Stormfront went online in 1995 and is recognized as the first hate site to appear on the web. The site was created and is maintained by Don Black, who lives in West Palm Beach, Florida. Black started his own local chapter of the White Youth Alliance as a 17 year old youth in Huntsville Alabama. By 1980, Black had taken over David Duke’s role as Klan leader. In 1981, Black and others attempted an armed invasion of a Caribbean island. Black served two years in minimum-security prison where he gained his computer skills(1) .

Stormfront.org ranks 28,409 in number of site visits, while the Anti-Defamation League ranks 59,570 (according to Alexa Internet which offers free tracking)(2) .

Overall, Stormfront is quite an impressive site. The site is well made and organized. However, there are no direct ways to get involved other than a posting on the main page which states that Stormfront is seeking individuals for their "web team" that wish to contribute articles, audio and video, graphical expertise, etc. The message states that they wish to make "…Stormfront a true alternative to the biased ‘mainstream’ news media".

There is a discussion forum on Stormfront that seems to be quite active. There are 3,315 registered members. The most users ever online at the same time were 222 on November 14, 2001. When I logged in on a Monday afternoon, there were 51 users on the boards. The topics of discussion include News, Poetry, Revisionism, Privacy, Network and Security Encryption (privacy seemed to be a concern at many hate sites), Health and Fitness, Strategies and Tactics (described as a forum for "Promoting White Rights through local organization"(3) ), e-Activism, and sections for users in Britain, Germany, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Latin America, the Netherlands, Eastern Europe, South Africa, and Sweden/Scandinavia(4).

These are just a few of the categories on the discussion board. By far the most active section (containing over 10,000 posts while most other categories averaged 100 to 1,000 posts) was the "General Rants" section, where debate from opponents took place. Opposing viewpoints can also be found in the "Links" section of the website, with a page being dedicated to "The Other Side", containing links to the ADL, Hatewatch, the Jewish Defense Organization, and others.

There is a women’s page on Stormfront. There is little in the way of content, and hardly any of it directly pertains to women. The site contains links to other white pride sites, writings by men and women concerning white pride, and a "public service announcement" concerning the kosher food tax, warning women not to buy foods that have been certified kosher(5) . This page is the least impressive of the women’s pages.

There is also a kids page on Stormfront, which has received considerable attention since the HBO documentary Hate.com profiled Stormfront and mentioned how its webmaster (Don Black) had his son running the kids page. Considering all the media attention to page has received, the page is unimpressive. The majority of its content is not racially oriented; there are links to optical illusion pictures and a "hit the dot" game. There is a Pokemon link, but rather than be something kids would want to see, it is merely a rant about the soaring popularity of "…a bunch of extremely ugly creatures…"(6) . There is a link to a revision of the Night Before Christmas titled "De Nite fo’ Crimmus" which is racially offensive, and contains language hardly appropriate for kids (which is surprising considering how many of these sites promote old-fashioned family values). The webpage is also rarely updated, as of December 3, 2001 the page had not been updated since October 18, 2001(7) .

What I find most remarkable about this website is that the media gave it considerable attention when they learned it was supposedly being run by an 11 year-old boy (indeed the page gives that impression, there are pictures of Derek and the messages are worded as if written by him). Yet, one can clearly tell that Derek did not write the content on that page. It is easy to distinguish the vocabulary of an eleven year-old from that of an adult, and it is clear that the writing, vocabulary, and slang (have you ever heard an 11 year-old use the words "razz" or "collectibles"?) are above the skills of someone his age.

The goals and beliefs of Stormfront’s members are easily attainable. There is a link to "White Nationalism FAQ " which (in a similar way to the World Church of the Creator FAQ’s) presents well-articulated answers to questions that are posed as if coming from a skeptic. There is also "What is Racism?" article outlining how the modern media wishes for White people to be ashamed of their race, that the media and government only consider White people to be guilty of racism, and how "…diversity is always achieved at the expense of Whites (and sometimes men), never the other way around…"(8).

Stormfront also boasts its own store, mainly selling Celtic jewelry and flags, confederate flag stickers and flags, and Stormfront.org t-shirts(9).

Notes:

(1)McKelevy, Tara. "Father and son target kids in a confederacy of hate". USA Today 16 July 2001: p 3D

(2)McKelevy, Tara, 3D.

(3)http://www.stormfront.org/forum/

(4)http://www.stormfront.org/forum/

(5)http://www.stormfront.org/

(6)http://www.stormfront.org/

(7)http://www.stormfront.org/

(8)http://www.stormfront.org/

(9)http://www.stormfront.org/

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