White supremacist rally could be tipping point for tech's tolerance for hate speech

A rise in domestic hate groups — whose vitriol spilled from online forums to the streets of Charlottesville during a violent weekend protest by white supremacists — is intensifying pressure on GoDaddy, Twitter, Google and others to put a lid on US extremist sites.

Civil libertarians and religious leaders say the deadly Charlottesville protest could be a tipping point for technology services to bow to consumer outrage and boot white nationalist and neo-Nazi sites that violate terms of service. If this happens, it will be a change that's slow in coming. Many Internet providers and platforms include policies that allow them to drop customers and users for a variety of reasons, including incitement of violence and hate speech. But they also have cast themselves as forums for the free-wheeling debate that's been a hallmark of the Internet, a role that makes them loathe to police the content their users share.