European Commission Moves To Stamp Out Racism On Internet Burssels, 31 Jan 1996 -- The European Commission (EC) has formed a pan-European group to "encourage the mixing of people of different cultures" from both inside and outside Europe. According to EC officials, the first task of the Consultative Commission on Racism and Xenophobia (CRAX), as it is called, will be to investigate and, using legal means, stamp out the current wave of racism on the Internet. In a prepared statement, CRAX said that it hopes that the EC "will take all needed measures to prevent the Internet from becoming a vehicle for the incitement of racist hatred." EC officials are soft-peddling on what legislation they plan to enact to back up the investigations of CRAX. Currently, apart from France and Germany, there is no specific anti-racist legislation. The laws of France and Germany were created in the aftermath of the Second World War in order to prevent the rising of the so-called "Fourth Reich," an extremist group which posts messages on the Internet, as well as running Thule bulletin board systems (BBSs) in Germany. According to EC officials, the Thule BBSs, which first appeared in 1991, started spreading the Neo-Nazi word on the Internet in late 1994, having established themselves as a means of information exchange in Germany and, to a limited extent, in France. As reported previously, the "Thule Network" first came to the public's attention when the January, 1994, issue of Chip magazine (a popular computer monthly in Germany) claimed to have unearthed eight Thule BBSs. According to Chip magazine at the time, "The (Thule) network distributes information on demonstrations and invitations to meetings, addresses for contacting parties and groups, and it reviews and offers books and magazines. One of the mail-boxes contained instructions for producing military explosives and letter bombs. A great deal of space is taken up by 'political discussions' among the users." Thule is Norse or Viking terminology for "top of the world." The Thule Network's name actually derives from the small, elitist 1920s movement which was considered to be the Nazi vanguard. Thule movement leaders included Rudolf Hess. Some BBSs on the Thule network have names such as "Wolf Box" and "Resistance," while many Internet messages are signed by people calling themselves "The Wolf," among other names. --