In a case that could signal the use of new civil rights tools against on-line hate speech, the Department of Housing and Urban Development filed a housing discrimination lawsuit against a white supremacist whose Web site contained threats against a fair housing advocate.
Even though the Web site-alpha.org-was taken off the Internet last year in response to a separate lawsuit by Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher, HUD officials said their suit was necessary to send a message against racism. The suit alleges that Ryan Wilson, who is listed as the domain owner in Web registries, posted death threats against Bonnie Jouhari, a housing advocate who worked for the HUD-supported Reading-Berks Human Relations Council in Reading, Pa.
The Web site "shows that the racism and the terrible discrimination that Dr. King fought so hard to abolish remain alive and well, and have even moved into cyberspace," HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo said in an announcement timed to coincide with the Monday celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. "Our fight against these evils continues today, whether along our backroads, main streets, or the information superhighway of the Internet," he said.
"This is the first fair housing case involving the Internet," said HUD spokesman David Egner. "Normally, threats are phoned in or made in hate mail." He said that the Fair Housing Act was the grounds for the department's lawsuit against Wilson, whose threats succeeded in scaring Jouhari from her position as a fair housing advocate.
If an administrative law judge rules against Wilson, who refused to respond to e-mail requests for comment, he could be subject to $22,000 in damages. The Department of Justice has not prosecuted Wilson.
"The Internet is a wonderful thing," said Jouhari, who now lives in the Seattle area and works as a temporary employee. "But when it is used to promote hatred and violence, then someone needs to stop that. It is too bad if it has to be HUD to step forward and take on a case like this, but at least it restores justice," she said.
"If I were to threaten Janet Reno in the way that I was threatened, I am sure I would be in jail before nightfall," she said.
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