Cloaked Websites: Propaganda, Cyber-Racism and Epistemology in the Digital Era

More news stories on Bizarre Racism Charges

Jessie Daniels, New Media & Society, August 2009

Abstract, Hunter College, City University of New York, USA, jdaniels@hunter.cuny.edu

This article analyzes cloaked websites, which are sites published by individuals or groups who conceal authorship in order to disguise deliberately a hidden political agenda. Drawing on the insights of critical theory and the Frankfurt School, this article examines the way in which cloaked websites conceal a variety of political agendas from a range of perspectives. Of particular interest here are cloaked white supremacist sites that disguise cyber-racism. The use of cloaked websites to further political ends raises important questions about knowledge production and epistemology in the digital era. These cloaked sites emerge within a social and political context in which it is increasingly difficult to parse fact from propaganda, and this is a particularly pernicious feature when it comes to the cyber-racism of cloaked white supremacist sites. The article concludes by calling for the importance of critical, situated political thinking in the evaluation of cloaked websites.

Key Words: cloaked o cyber-racism o epistemology o propaganda o racist o white supremacist

New Media & Society, Vol. 11, No. 5, 659-683 (2009)

DOI: 10.1177/1461444809105345

[Editor’s Note: “Cloaked Websites,” by Jessie Daniels, can be downloaded as a PDF file here. A subscription or fee is required.]

Original article

(Posted on August 3, 2009)

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Comments

1 — Question Diversity wrote at 5:51 PM on August 5:

“Cloaked,” huh? I suppose that means that if you start from the end of a Republican committee website, and work backwards and take every third letter, then translate it into Bulgarian, you’ll find a secret fascist message.

Fruit and nut time, isn’t it?

They’re not winning me by citing the Frankfurt School.

2 — stanley wrote at 12:47 AM on August 6:

Yeah, Daniels, the lifetime academic is a real self loathing you-know-what. Another crusader on the government dole and the enemy of every white girl in America.

3 — browser wrote at 1:31 AM on August 6:

“Drawing on the insights of critical theory and the Frankfurt School, this article examines the way in which cloaked websites conceal a variety of political agendas from a range of perspectives.”
__ __ __ __

Relying on the Frankfurt School?!!! Oh, boy! That shows where these people are coming from. They might as well rely on Pol Pot or Chairman Mao for their “insights”.

Nonetheless, I’ll certainly grant that the Frankfurt School are experts on the subject of cloaking political agendas. They should know something about that topic!

They are SO good at “cloaking political agendas” that most ordinary people have never heard of The Frankfurt School — one of the most dangerous and influential forces at work in modern times. Its disciples have re-shaped America under our noses, within our lifetimes, and most Americans have no idea where all this “change” is coming from.

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