Furzi
From WikiFur, the furry encyclopedia.
Furzi, also known as the Die Deutsch Furmacht, are a group of Nazi furs in the virtual world of Second Life. It was founded by Rainbow Pirandello and Spotz Spork.
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[edit] Group charter
| This is a group for furs who have an interest in German/WWII history. We're not racist and we don't hate anyone, we're just history buffs who enjoy a bit of RP. If you're looking to just be offensive then go somewhere else(...)
(...)This is a group that prides itself on being realistic and historically accurate |
[edit] Das Waffenamt
Das Waffenamt is both a German/Axis military paraphernalia shop, and the groups official headquarters. Every Friday evening, WWII march and propaganda music is streamed on site to "give a feel for the time period."
[edit] Controversy
On March 22nd, 2007,[1][2] the Furzi Truppenverband came to ideological loggerheads with the both the Jews of Second Life and Zionist Association of Second Life groups, and later the Second Life Jewish Defense League (the Second Life branch of the Jewish Defense League) when a Jewish user encountered the co-owner of Black Ops, Kayla Stonecutter, wearing a totenkopf as part of her avatar. She objected to the non-historical display of the symbol in public and demanded that Kayla remove the Nazi regalia, at least while at the (non-Furzi/WWII related) store.
The individual refused to remove the item, and an argument between the owners of Black Ops and the offended party about a user's 1st Amendment right to wear offensive symbols resulted in said party summoning a member of the JSL to the premises. After receiving the same response again, they were directed to the store were the original item had been purchased, Das Waffenamt on the Triphosa sim.
At that location, it was discovered that Das Waffenamt, run by the Fuzis, was selling Nazi-era anti-Semitic propaganda posters in addition to the Nazi items. The requests of removal by the Jewish users was met with refusal by the store/group owners on the grounds that it was their right under the Constitution of the United States to sell these items. It was further stated by the store's owners that the acts had been committed by an individual that was not a member the Furzi group, and that the owners entrust avatars who shop at Das Waffenamt to follow all Second Life Acceptable Use Policy guidelines. The Jewish users argued that the Furzis were violating the Second Life Community Standards.
The entire group Jews of Second Life, which has in excess of 200 members, was then banned from the Furzi's property. Spotz Spork also asserted that he was a member of BanLink, which could be described as a black list system, and that anyone banned from his property would also be banned from any other place in the BanLink system. Many Jewish users who had no knowledge or involvement in the incident were upset that they were banned simply for being part of a Jewish group and became motivated to act against the Furzis.
The matter was later covered in the second issue of 2life, an online magazine dedicated to Jewish matters on Second life.[3]
[edit] Response by the Community
The anti-hate groups Second Lifer's Against Hate, Second Life Jewish Defense Leauge, and the Zionist Association of Second Life spent several months gathering evidence of racism and anti-Semitism in Second Life. The groups put together a report on Neo-Nazi activity in Second Life documenting the information, much of which centered around the Furzis. Included in the report are incidents of the Nazi furs constructing objects, uploading images, and creating avatars based on self-professed racist and/or anti-Semitic ideology. Chat logs of hate speech were also recorded such as "Zykloning a Jew, it will be the best day of our lives!"
In September 2008 the SL Communists also filed complaints against Das Waffenamt and Spotz Spork.
With many people objecting to the presence of the Furzis, along with chat logs, images, video, sound and database access records clearly showing the group was violating the Second Life Community Standards and other clauses of the Terms of Service Linden Lab took action against them to the effect that the leader, Spotz Spork was permanently banned, several other members received temporary bans, and all objects sold at their Nazi stores were deleted.[4] 2Life Magazine published another article about the Furzis to cover these events.[5]
A member of the Furzis was also arrested on weapons charges and prosecuted in Canada due to information gathered during the investigation.
Within a few days the MAC address ban on the leader was lifted and all of the offending items were made freebies rather than items to be sold, although the username "Spotz Spork" is permanently banned. Previous to the report being published Spotz Spork re-registered as Spotz Spoog, allowing the Furzis to continue unabated in their use of the Second Life system to promote their ideology.
Due partly to the Furzi controversy the SLAH, SL JDL, and ZASL have been recruiting new members and making alliances with both Second Life and real-world anti-hate groups and various police organizations to pursue further action against all Nazi furs both online and offline.
[edit] References
- ↑ Aussie hosts seder in cyberspace the first off-world report of the JSL/Furzi debacle
- ↑ Virtually Nazis SL JDL's story on the incident
- ↑ Virtual Hate, Real Danger? - 2Life Magazine's first article on the Nazi Furs
- ↑ A Victory in the Fight Against Racism in Second Life (unedited version) on the SLJDL's site.
- ↑ 'A Victory in the Fight Against Racism in Second Life as published in 2Life Magazine.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Das Waffenamt store on Second Life (SLurl)
- Jewish Defense League of Second Life
- Zionist Association of Second Life
- Second Life Community Standards
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