Lincoln student becomes target on neo-Nazi site

A University of Lincoln student has been put on “Redwatch”, a website used by fascists and other right-wing extremists to locate and target anyone involved in anti-fascist or anti-racist movements.

Tom Myhill is the president of the Socialist Students branch in Lincoln. He regularly attends demonstrations that campaign against racist organisations. He said he was angry but not totally surprised when he found out he had been put on the site, saying: “I didn’t think they’d take too long to track me down.”

He initially found he had been placed on the website when he decided to check his MySpace page and found a message on there from someone he didn’t know, saying he’d been put on the website.

“It just so happened that I decided to check my MySpace for the first time in months, when I saw the message and checked [Redwatch]. I found a little section dedicated to me, it almost looked like a personal fan site.”

The politics student said he was embarrassed, saying Redwatch had deliberately picked certain pictures to depict him in an inappropriate and misleading way. But he joked: “I also found their choice of pictures flattering. They made it look as if they fancied me.”

All of the information and images that have been put on the website have been taken from what is publicly available on social networking sites; in his case, MySpace and Facebook. Myhill is urging students to check what content they store on these sites is accessible by anyone, from images and videos to personal contact details. He also wants to see the Students’ Union raise awareness on the issue. “It’s an important issue. Something has to be done to protect the safety and well-being of students, as well as to preserve their dignity, which is something I don’t have much left of now.”

Myhill has threatened Redwatch with legal action over the use of certain copyrighted pictures, and has contacted Google in an attempt to remove the site from its results.

“If Redwatch could easily be shut down then it should be. I’m not scared of these Nazi scumbags, even if they’re harbouring some sort of physical attraction towards me.”

The Linc

Lee Barnes loses it again

BNP spokesman Lee Barnes rants:

'I hate anyone with a fucking facebook account, who twitters, who has a myspace account, who spends time posting up pictures of their sad lives and their ugly mugs on the internet - if you have one of those techno shite accounts then you are sad fucking, no life, metrosexual twat.'

Here’s a typical example of a 'sad fucking, no life, metrosexual twat':

Harry's Place

UK government stops Facebook ads

The British government has halted its advertising on the social networking Web site Facebook over concerns about how its ads are displayed, its communication arm said in a statement.

Six major British companies, including mobile phone giant Vodafone , pulled their ads from Facebook last week because they were appearing on the profile page of the far-right British National Party.

Ads pop up on Facebook pages on a rotating basis, giving companies limited say over where they are displayed.

The Central Office of Information (COI) said it was seeking assurances that ads on social networking Web sites would reach desired audiences. It said it would not resume advertising until better safeguards were in place.

COI, which has one of the biggest advertising budgets in Britain, said on Tuesday it was still waiting for guarantees from Facebook but that it was satisfied with the safeguards in place on the rival MySpace and Bebo Web sites.

"Advertising has been paused temporarily on any Web sites that have not provided COI and i-level (COI's online media-buying agency) with the further assurances our bookings require," Jamie Galloway, COI director of digital media said late on Monday.

Facebook, which has seen membership spike to more than 30 million and is rapidly becoming one of the most popular sites on the Internet, was not immediately available for comment.

CNN