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== Content and reception ==
== Content and reception ==
The [[Global Network on Extremism and Technology]] researchers Hampton Stall, David Foran, and Hari Prasad have described StoneToss as a "a comic creator [who] pulls from neo-Nazi views and makes them more palatable for a broader audience".<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Stall |first1=Hampton |last2=Prasad |first2=Hari |last3=Foran |first3=David |url=https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/184677234/Encrypted_GNET_Report_A_Comparative_Analysis_Of_Three_Online_Reactionary_Meme_Subcultures.pdf |title=Can the Right Meme? (And How?): A Comparative Analysis of Three Online Reactionary Meme Subcultures |date=December 13, 2021 |work=[[Global Network on Extremism and Technology]] |publisher=International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation |via=King's College London Research Portal |access-date=March 17, 2024 |archive-date=March 17, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240317221521/https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/184677234/Encrypted_GNET_Report_A_Comparative_Analysis_Of_Three_Online_Reactionary_Meme_Subcultures.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2021, the Jewish organization [[Anti-Defamation League]] described StoneToss as a "[[far-right]] illustrator", one of whose comics was a presentation of the antisemitic idea of [[Jewish deicide]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/gab-ceo-andrew-torba-broadcasts-his-antisemitism-across-social-media-platforms |title=Gab CEO Andrew Torba Broadcasts His Antisemitism Across Social Media Platforms |website=[[Anti-Defamation League]] |date=December 15, 2021 |access-date=March 17, 2024 |archive-date=January 13, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240113064703/https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/gab-ceo-andrew-torba-broadcasts-his-antisemitism-across-social-media-platforms |url-status=live }}</ref> Other cartoons make fun of [[suicide among LGBT youth|suicide among transgender people]].<ref name="Ingram-2024">{{Cite news |last1=Ingram |first1=David |date=21 March 2024 |title=Elon Musk's X bans revealing the names of anonymous users after scrutiny of antisemitic cartoonist |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/elon-musk-x-bans-revealing-names-anonymous-users-cartoon-rcna144486 |access-date=21 March 2024 |website=[[NBC News]]}}</ref>
The [[Global Network on Extremism and Technology]] researchers Hampton Stall, David Foran, and Hari Prasad have described StoneToss as a "[[crypto-Nazi]] cartoonist"<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle|{{cite web |last1=Stall |first1=Hampton |last2=Prasad |first2=Hari |last3=Foran |first3=David |title=What's in a Meme? The Rise of "Saint Kyle" |url=https://gnet-research.org/2020/10/29/whats-in-a-meme-the-rise-of-saint-kyle/ |website=[[Global Network on Extremism and Technology]] |access-date=March 17, 2024 |date=October 29, 2020 |archive-date=June 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628063313/https://gnet-research.org/2020/10/29/whats-in-a-meme-the-rise-of-saint-kyle/ |url-status=live }}|{{cite journal |last1=Stall |first1=Hampton |last2=Foran |first2=David |last3=Prasad |first3=Hari |title=Kyle Rittenhouse and the Shared Meme Networks of the Armed American Far-Right: An Analysis of the Content Creation Formula, right-wing Injection of Politics, and Normalization of Violence |journal=Terrorism and Political Violence |date=November 17, 2023 |volume=35 |issue=8 |pages=1625–1649 |doi=10.1080/09546553.2022.2074293}}<!--citebundle end-->}}</ref> and a "a comic creator [who] pulls from neo-Nazi views and makes them more palatable for a broader audience".<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Stall |first1=Hampton |last2=Prasad |first2=Hari |last3=Foran |first3=David |url=https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/184677234/Encrypted_GNET_Report_A_Comparative_Analysis_Of_Three_Online_Reactionary_Meme_Subcultures.pdf |title=Can the Right Meme? (And How?): A Comparative Analysis of Three Online Reactionary Meme Subcultures |date=December 13, 2021 |work=[[Global Network on Extremism and Technology]] |publisher=International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation |via=King's College London Research Portal |access-date=March 17, 2024 |archive-date=March 17, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240317221521/https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/184677234/Encrypted_GNET_Report_A_Comparative_Analysis_Of_Three_Online_Reactionary_Meme_Subcultures.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2021, the Jewish organization [[Anti-Defamation League]] described StoneToss as a "[[far-right]] illustrator", one of whose comics was a presentation of the antisemitic idea of [[Jewish deicide]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/gab-ceo-andrew-torba-broadcasts-his-antisemitism-across-social-media-platforms |title=Gab CEO Andrew Torba Broadcasts His Antisemitism Across Social Media Platforms |website=[[Anti-Defamation League]] |date=December 15, 2021 |access-date=March 17, 2024 |archive-date=January 13, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240113064703/https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/gab-ceo-andrew-torba-broadcasts-his-antisemitism-across-social-media-platforms |url-status=live }}</ref> Other cartoons make fun of [[suicide among LGBT youth|suicide among transgender people]].<ref name="Ingram-2024">{{Cite news |last1=Ingram |first1=David |date=21 March 2024 |title=Elon Musk's X bans revealing the names of anonymous users after scrutiny of antisemitic cartoonist |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/elon-musk-x-bans-revealing-names-anonymous-users-cartoon-rcna144486 |access-date=21 March 2024 |website=[[NBC News]]}}</ref>


Since its debut in June 2017,<ref name="Gilmour-2019" /> the webcomic has gained popularity in right-wing online communities,<ref name="Gilbert-2024" /> getting millions of views on Twitter.<ref name="Ingram-2024" /> [[Reddit]] and [[Discord]] banned their respective official StoneToss communities in 2019.<ref name="Gilmour-2019" /> On [[Facebook]] and [[Instagram]], as of 2021, some of the cartoons were posted by the author in heavily [[pixellated]] versions to prevent them from breaching those platforms' policies.<ref>{{cite web |title=Facebook, Instagram Should Deplatform StoneToss |url=https://www.counterextremism.com/blog/facebook-instagram-should-deplatform-stonetoss |website=[[Counter Extremism Project]] |access-date=March 21, 2024 |language=en |date=May 17, 2021 |archive-date=February 25, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240225073953/https://www.counterextremism.com/blog/facebook-instagram-should-deplatform-stonetoss |url-status=live }}</ref>
Since its debut in June 2017,<ref name="Gilmour-2019" /> the webcomic has gained popularity in right-wing online communities,<ref name="Gilbert-2024" /> getting millions of views on Twitter.<ref name="Ingram-2024" /> [[Reddit]] and [[Discord]] banned their respective official StoneToss communities in 2019.<ref name="Gilmour-2019" /> On [[Facebook]] and [[Instagram]], as of 2021, some of the cartoons were posted by the author in heavily [[pixellated]] versions to prevent them from breaching those platforms' policies.<ref>{{cite web |title=Facebook, Instagram Should Deplatform StoneToss |url=https://www.counterextremism.com/blog/facebook-instagram-should-deplatform-stonetoss |website=[[Counter Extremism Project]] |access-date=March 21, 2024 |language=en |date=May 17, 2021 |archive-date=February 25, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240225073953/https://www.counterextremism.com/blog/facebook-instagram-should-deplatform-stonetoss |url-status=live }}</ref>

Revision as of 11:07, 24 March 2024

StoneToss
Current status/scheduleOngoing
Launch dateJuly 18, 2017[1]
Publisher(s)Self-published (webcomic)
Genre(s)Far-right political cartoon[2]
Original languageEnglish
Preceded byRed Panels
Part of a series on
Antisemitism
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Geography
Manifestations
Antisemitic tropes
Antisemitic publications
Antisemitism on the Internet
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Related topics
Category

StoneToss is a political cartoon series in the form of a webcomic, launched in June 2017 by a pseudonymous American neo-Nazi[3] cartoonist (using "StoneToss" as an alias). The webcomic espouses far-right, racist, homophobic and antisemitic views, including Holocaust denial,[2][1] using "simple and colorful imagery"[3] and humor.[1][4] In March 2024, antifascists claimed to have successfully revealed the identity of the webcomic's author.[2][5] The webcomic's author sought help from Twitter's owner Elon Musk; Twitter then suspended multiple users who posted the author's alleged real name, and amended its privacy policy to prohibit disclosure of others' real names.[3][6] Critics took the move as evidence of Musk's preferential treatment for neo-Nazis, antisemites and white supremacists.[6]

Content and reception

The Global Network on Extremism and Technology researchers Hampton Stall, David Foran, and Hari Prasad have described StoneToss as a "crypto-Nazi cartoonist"[7] and a "a comic creator [who] pulls from neo-Nazi views and makes them more palatable for a broader audience".[8] In 2021, the Jewish organization Anti-Defamation League described StoneToss as a "far-right illustrator", one of whose comics was a presentation of the antisemitic idea of Jewish deicide.[9] Other cartoons make fun of suicide among transgender people.[6]

Since its debut in June 2017,[1] the webcomic has gained popularity in right-wing online communities,[3] getting millions of views on Twitter.[6] Reddit and Discord banned their respective official StoneToss communities in 2019.[1] On Facebook and Instagram, as of 2021, some of the cartoons were posted by the author in heavily pixellated versions to prevent them from breaching those platforms' policies.[10]

In a 2022 Global Studies Quarterly article titled "DIY Cruelty: The Global Political Micro-Practices of Hateful Memes", political scientist Renee Marlin-Bennett and researcher Susan T Jackson studied a pair of politically polar-opposite subreddits and identified StoneToss as an "extreme rightwing cartoonist known for his bigoted work", whose cartoons are prominently featured in the right-wing subreddit.[11] According to them, his cartoons were not posted "as memes but as non-meme posts that the community agrees with and is entertained by." They further wrote that "meme creators take his simple line drawings and edit them to make new memes, often called "stonetossedit" or "stonetoss is a nazi"", and that both Reddit communities have adapted StoneToss' work for their own purposes, thereby increasing the visibility of the cartoons.[11] In a commentary piece for the think tank European Center for Populism Studies, arts researcher Heidi Hart noted the presence of sexist tropes. According to her, the cartoons rely on "edgy humor", and while internet users on the left have been trying to appropriate the cartoons, adding "layers of irony", the subversion of their message is not easily understood by most.[4]

The author of StoneToss has used the comic to fundraise by selling non-fungible tokens on websites such as OpenSea before being banned from the websites.[12]

Alleged revelation of the author's identity

In March 2024, antifascist internet vigilantes claimed to have revealed the identity of StoneToss using leaked information from Gab, a social media website with a far-right userbase.[2][5] According to the material they published, the author is a Texan former security guard and IT professional.[13] The antifascist group said that the same author was the author of the RedPanels webcomic,[2][3] described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a neo-Nazi comic[14] and by Matt Binder of Mashable as "even more overtly pro-Nazi" than StoneToss.[15] As of late March, media organizations reporting on the event have been indicating that they have not independently verified the author's stated identity.[6]: n.pag. [15]: n.pag. 

StoneToss denied being a neo-Nazi[6] and sought protection from Twitter's owner Elon Musk through individuals who had contacts with him.[3] This was followed by a controversy after Twitter suspended multiple users who posted the author's alleged real name, with media taking special note of civil rights attorney and transgender rights activist Alejandra Caraballo's suspension.[13][2][16] In a piece titled "Nazi cartoonist meets the Streisand Effect after Twitter censors discussion of his identity", Rob Beschizza of Boing Boing commented that, while "no-one outside of extremely online spaces cares", the controversy was intensified via a Streisand effect.[2] The episode was followed by renewed concerns about content moderation on Twitter under Musk, especially regarding content that promotes far-right ideas.[13] After a few days, Twitter amended its privacy policy—which at the time expressly excluded real names from what it considers private information—to prohibit disclosure of others' real names. As this behavior had been tolerated when it would come from right-wing accounts, critics took the move as evidence of the platform under Musk affording preferential treatment to that group of users.[6][17][18]

Notes

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Gilmour, David (May 31, 2019). "Antifa redditors are repurposing anti-Semitic comics for good". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on March 6, 2024. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Beschizza, Rob (March 16, 2024). "Nazi cartoonist meets the Streisand Effect after Twitter censors discussion of his identity". Boing Boing. Archived from the original on March 16, 2024. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Gilbert, David (March 20, 2024). "X Blocked Journalists and Researchers Who Identified a Neo-Nazi Cartoonist". Wired. Archived from the original on March 20, 2024. Retrieved March 20, 2024.
  4. ^ a b Hart, Heidi (December 31, 2021). "Climate Satire and Anti-science Populism in Don't Look Up". European Center for Populism Studies. Archived from the original on March 21, 2024. Retrieved March 20, 2024.
  5. ^ a b Crimmins, Tricia (March 13, 2024). "Author of far-right comic StoneToss allegedly doxed by left-wing reporting collective". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on March 17, 2024. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Ingram, David (March 21, 2024). "Elon Musk's X bans revealing the names of anonymous users after scrutiny of antisemitic cartoonist". NBC News. Retrieved March 21, 2024.
  7. ^
  8. ^ Stall, Hampton; Prasad, Hari; Foran, David (December 13, 2021). "Can the Right Meme? (And How?): A Comparative Analysis of Three Online Reactionary Meme Subcultures" (PDF). Global Network on Extremism and Technology. International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 17, 2024. Retrieved March 17, 2024 – via King's College London Research Portal.
  9. ^ "Gab CEO Andrew Torba Broadcasts His Antisemitism Across Social Media Platforms". Anti-Defamation League. December 15, 2021. Archived from the original on January 13, 2024. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  10. ^ "Facebook, Instagram Should Deplatform StoneToss". Counter Extremism Project. May 17, 2021. Archived from the original on February 25, 2024. Retrieved March 21, 2024.
  11. ^ a b Marlin-Bennett, Renée; Jackson, Susan T (February 9, 2022). "DIY Cruelty: The Global Political Micro-Practices of Hateful Memes". Global Studies Quarterly. 2 (2). doi:10.1093/isagsq/ksac002. ISSN 2634-3797. Archived from the original on March 21, 2024. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  12. ^ "7 Trends in Online Extremism to Look Out for in 2022". Gizmodo. January 21, 2022. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
  13. ^ a b c Wiggins, Christopher (March 19, 2024). "Alejandra Caraballo banned from Elon Musk's X platform". The Advocate. Archived from the original on March 19, 2024. Retrieved March 19, 2024.
  14. ^ Ward, Justin (April 19, 2018). "Day of the trope: White nationalist memes thrive on Reddit's r/The_Donald". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on February 1, 2019. Retrieved March 19, 2024.
  15. ^ a b Binder, Matt (March 20, 2024). "Elon Musk's X suspends users who post alleged name of alt-right comic creator". Mashable. Archived from the original on March 21, 2024. Retrieved March 21, 2024.
  16. ^ Sprayregen, Molly (March 18, 2024). "Elon Musk shamed for protecting an alt-right cartoonist while letting transphobia flourish on X". LGBTQ Nation. Archived from the original on March 19, 2024. Retrieved March 19, 2024.
  17. ^ Wiggins, Christopher (March 21, 2024). "X quietly updates policy on doxxing after neo-Nazi reveal". The Advocate. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
  18. ^ "X sperrt Konten, die die Identität eines rechtsextremen Cartoonisten enthüllen" [X blocks accounts that reveal the identity of a right-wing cartoonist]. Der Standard (in German). March 21, 2024. Retrieved March 21, 2024.
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