Yesterday, 1/27/07, Philippe Borremans wrote in his blog an article about the arrival of the Front National (FN), a right-wing party from France in SL and the possible implications of this move.
He’s musing about the implications like this:
Well, both Le Pen, the head of the party and some of its members have been condemned in court because they made negationist comments about the holocaust. But I guess that doesn’t count in a virtual world.
Wrong; depending on the country it can count. Very much so.
How will anti-racist organisations react ? Do the same, set up a presence in Second Life and take the political battle online ? Does this mean that what is considered as condemnable by law in the real world is not in a virtual one ?
Good question; but after some investigations you should already know the answer. Yes, those organisations are – or at least their supporters – are online too, and yes, they take this battle online. Very much so.
Just take a look at this article from the German magazine Der Spiegel from 1/12/07 (Germany only, here roughly translated via Google). There already have been in world demonstrations against the FN in SL before the article from Mr. Borremans was written.
So, SL already turned into another platform for this political struggle – for both sides. Where the one goes, the other follows suit in no time at all. That’s the way it goes.