CHICAGO, 15 December 2006 — New technologies like the Internet have made it easier to side step the inherent anti-Arab and anti-Muslim biases of the Western news media.
But they have also allowed anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate providers to spread their hatred faster and farther, too.
What do we do?
When the technology was the television, we simply changed the channel. When TV turned into Cable and Satellite, we simply applied blocking technologies to keep our eyes from seeing the offensive materials.
With the Internet, we can ignore offensive websites in much the same way. But what we are not doing is preventing the hate sites from reaching audiences that are unaware that what they are seeing is actually driven by hatred, racism and bias.
While closing our eyes keeps us from seeing the hatred, it does nothing to keep others from seeing the hatred. In closing our eyes, we might not be doing enough. But what can we do?
I say confront the hate sites directly. Hit them where it really hurts. In their pocketbooks. This reverse boycott strategy can be more effective in responding to the growing problem of Internet hate sites. We have the power to right the wrongs, but we don’t always know it. We become reactive rather than proactive, and we play by the rules set by our enemies.
The hate sites don’t care if we close our eyes or avoid their sites. They are not trying to reach us. They are trying to reach the uninformed majority. In fact, when we turn our eyes away as Arabs and Muslims, we are actually helping these hate sites become more effective in reaching their target audiences, which consists mainly of people who are unaware of the truth and easily provoked into hatred through stereotypes, fears and lack of education.
The key to successfully responding to these hate sites is money. Go to any Internet search engine or major Internet portal and you will see all kinds of paid advertising. Most of these paid advertisements have value. But some fall in the category of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hatred. These advertisers pay to have their links placed on these Internet web portals. They want people to click the links and then be re-directed to their websites.
Take the case of an anti-Arab or anti-Muslim advertiser. When Arabs and Muslims turn away, we are actually helping that advertiser by making their cost of advertising more effective. We turn away, but the general public does not. The advertiser has to pay every time someone clicks on their ad. When it is someone who is likely to believe their lies, accept their hatred as reason, and absorb their bigoted logic, the advertiser has won. The cost of the advertisement has been justified.
But, when an Arab and a Muslim clicks on these online advertisement links, those hate sites lose. Rather than attracting someone who might join their cause, they have just paid to have their advertisement viewed by someone who won’t simply accept their lies. They lose.
But they lose even bigger when you repeatedly clock on their advertisement links. Each time you click their site, you make them pay. And each payment becomes an even greater financial loss for them. In fact, some of these sites could be put out of business simply by clicking on their links.
Now, the dynamics of Internet marketing measures economic power based on a term called “traffic.” Cynics might point out that this reverse boycott strategy of excessively clicking on the links of the hate sites will actually drive up the traffic and therefore help them to achieve their goals.
But Internet “traffic” alone is not a measure of financial success. That “traffic” must transform into some kind of purchase by the visitor. Most of the websites must realize an economic positive in order to make increased visitor traffic beneficial. Their advertising money must generate more money, or else they realize significant financial losses regardless of the upward spike in visitor traffic.
Another issue is that the hate sites I am speaking about are political in nature. I am not advocating this strategy as a response to the proliferation of pornographic websites that often times are actually fronts for “phishing” schemes that steal information from your computer when you visit. These pornographic sites generally are not found on the mainstream Internet web providers and portals.
Arab and Muslim communities can easily target these hate sites on the mainstream Internet web providers and portals. An organized reverse boycott strategy can put them out of business.
Each time you click their links, you are basically making them throw away money. The amount of money spent can easily skyrocket into hundreds of thousands of dollars. If every Arab and Muslim repeatedly clicked on the advertisement of these hate sites, you would quickly put them out of business.
Rather than running from these Internet hate sites, we should be running at them.
The next time you visit a mainstream website and see an advertisement for one of the many anti-Arab or anti-Muslim websites, don’t run from it. Click the link over and over again.
The best way to make them go away is to run them down financially.
— Ray Hanania was named the 2005/2006 Best Ethnic Columnist by the New America Media. He can be reached at www.hanania.com
