Monday Memory: Fight Against Front National in Second Life Illustrates the Challenge of Extremist Expression in an Immersive Virtual World

Above: The face of Dr. King shines from the virtual sun upon an anti-fascist protest against Front National in Second Life

In early 2007, in the run-up to Martin Luther King Jr. day in the US, Second Life was wracked by protests against Front National, the leading far right party in France, which decided to set up an official campaign headquarters of the virtual world. The surrounding community, however, wasn't too happy with those plans:

The first night I arrived at the protest against the Second Life headquarters of Front National, the far right French political party of Jean-Marie Le Pen, it was ringed on all sides by protesters with signs to wave and statements to distribute. By the second night I came (this was late last week), the conflict had become more literal, for many Residents had armed themselves. Multi-colored explosions and constant gunfire shredded the air of Porcupine, a shopping island which FN had inexplicably picked for the site of their virtual world HQ, in December.

The server lag from so many people throwing up so much gunfire slows the battle to a slow motion firefight, but I manage to wade up to TonTonCarton Yue, who is strafing the FN building with a chaingun usually associated with an AC-130 gunship, than a political protest.

"Can I ask," I begin, "why are you shooting?"

"Because I hate Front National," Yue tells me simply.

"If you use violence, doesn't that reduce you to their level?" "I don't know," Yue answers, after awhile.

"I don't care. FN equals violence." And having offered that axiom, he returns his aim to the enemy, and unleashes another barrage.

And so it raged, a ponderous and dreamlike conflict of machine guns, sirens, police cars, "rez cages" (which can trap an unsuspecting avatar), explosions, and flickering holograms of marijuana leaves and kids' TV characters, and more… One enterprising insurrectionist created a pig grenade, fixed it to a flying saucer, and sent several whirling into Front National headquarters, where they'd explode in a starburst of porcine shrapnel.

The very fact that a metaverse platform is immersive and enables the creation of 3D content amplifies the challenge of creating a community that's free from anti-social behavior among avatars. Most other Internet communities only need to contend with toxic speech expressed in text and audio/video. In a virtual world, the toxicity can become a literal part of the world itself.

This very point was raised by the organized protesters, holding up Linden Lab's own community standards:

After Front National took root, at least two groups, antiFN and SL Left Unity, rose to oppose them. They had placards and T-shirts, and billboards on the land of sympathetic neighbors, all making plain that FN's arrival in Second Life was distinctly unwelcome. For their part, Front National members– mostly muscular young men dressed in white T-shirts with the FN logo– stood inside their headquarters, impassively watching the outrage build outside.

"We have acquired land next to the FN office," an SLLU announcement read, "and will be manning a protest there until FN go or are ejected. Wherever fascists are we will ensure they get no peace to corrupt and lie to decent people."

"The whole idea of a 'race hate' group is in direct violation of Linden Lab's own Terms of Service," The announcement went on, "and if the rules are being read to say they aren’t in violation, then Lindens need to look at the rules again." This is an apparent reference, by the way, not to the TOS, but Linden's Community Standards, which forbid "use of derogatory or demeaning language or images in reference to another Resident's race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation". But while Front National may have run counter to those standards in the real world, it's uncertain if their SL chapter ever has.

This question came up in more recent years with the emergence of pro-Trump groups also running roughshod over Community Standards. The core takeaway is understanding these kind of conflicts are inevitable in a virtual world accessible by people from around the globe, who bring with them their own competing and often contrary beliefs. The core goal is to foster a virtual world that feels welcoming to all — especially those who are marginalized in the real world for various reasons.

Read the whole original post, "Fighting the Front", here.