Penn alumna battles hate on the Web

They want you to believe the Holocaust was made up. They are hate-based groups with easily accessible sites on the World Wide Web -- and the Anti-Defamation League is keeping an eye on them. Thursday night, Elizabeth Coleman, the ADL's national civil rights director and a 1974 alumna of Penn's Law School, spoke about "Hate on the Internet" to an audience packed with Law alumni at the Hoyle, Morris & Kerr LLP firm at 1 Liberty Place in Center City. Coleman explained that the ADL is dedicated to monitoring the Web sites of hate groups, including Neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, anti-Semitics, radical anti-abortion groups and anti-homosexual groups. She said that she believes that this issue needs constant attention. "There is not a huge leap from violent words to violent actions," Coleman said. With the growing use of the Internet, Coleman said she believes that the growth of Web sites related to hate is going to increase very rapidly. The ADL is not only concerned about Web sites, but also e-mail and chat rooms which these groups use to gain members and offer their beliefs to Internet surfers. "We don't think that hate groups could or should be censored," said Coleman, referring to the First Amendment. Instead, courts must intervene when there is a "personal and intimate threat" on a person or group, she said. Coleman said a good example of this occurred in California, where Victor Machado sent a threatening e-mail to 59 Asian Americans reading, "I will personally make it my life career to find and kill every one of you." Besides having a staff to monitor the hate groups on-line, the ADL is releasing filtering software that will allow parents to prevent their children from accessing these sites. Coleman said that the software will not only block the child from entering the hate Web sites on the Internet, but it will also redirect them to a more educational site. "People don't need to invite these people in their home," Coleman said. 1972 Law alumna and event host Arlene Fickler explained that the group of alumni were gathered to honor their fellow alumna who holds such a position of "great significance." Penn Law School Dean Colin Diver said the ADL's job as a "watchdog" for these groups is very beneficial. He added that the First Amendment should be upheld, and that litigation against these hate groups might bring them even more attention than they deserve. "What we need to do to hate groups' sites are to equalize them to graffiti," Diver said. "They are products of infantile and psychotic people." College senior Shana Duffine, who attended the speech, said college students use the Internet extensively and also need to be aware of hate groups on-line. "We need to keep our eyes open to what we see," she said. Duffine also said the student groups who visit local West Philadelphia schools should teach the children about safe ways to use the Internet.