Debunking Misconceptions: DAOs and Online Extremism

• Decentralized Autonomous Organizations: Potential Breeding Ground for Online Extremism or Not?
• Role of Discord in Organizing Extremist Groups
• DAOs and Discord
• Fallacy of Extremist DAOs
• DAOs: The Reality
• Case of the Taliban and DAOs
• DAOs: A Tool for Extremists?

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations: Potential Breeding Ground for Online Extremism or Not?

A recent publication postulated that Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) could potentially become the next significant hub for coordinated online extremism. The prediction paints a picture of neo-Nazis, jihadists, and conspiracy theorists converting their utopian visions of constructing their self-governed states into reality by 2024 - all happening online via DAOs.

Role of Discord in Organizing Extremist Groups

Extremist movements, including highly controversial and public organizations such as Les Identitaires and Reconquista Germanica, have reportedly been studied by an academic extremism researcher. The research suggests that such groups are relatively easy to investigate due to the participants' lack of operational security (opsec).

Many of these groups use servers based in the United States. This circumstance allows the FBI to obtain a grand jury subpoena doxxing a user of those servers rapidly if needed. Companies may voluntarily disclose these records in situations posing a threat to life. For instance, the organization Reconquista Germanica, which operated from a Discord group, would have been exceedingly vulnerable. Discord, Inc., a San Francisco-based social media company, provides user communications that are readily disclosable to law enforcement.

DAOs and Discord

DAOs also largely use Discord for community management and outreach. However, there seems to be an absence of evidence proving that any of the DAOs mentioned in the article employed cryptoprotocols instead of Discord to communicate. There's also a lack of direct evidence showing that DAOs are being contemplated or effectively used for malicious purposes by such organizations.

Fallacy of Extremist DAOs

Predictions about trolling armies starting to collaborate via DAOs to launch election interference campaigns are indeed daunting. However, most members of these extremist groups live and operate freely within Western societies, and holding extremist beliefs and expressing them is not a crime in many jurisdictions. Discord's existence could be seen as advantageous, serving as an early warning system for law enforcement bodies who monitor these forums.

Reality suggests that planning a serious crime or challenging the rule of law on a public Discord would likely result in close law enforcement surveillance, potentially leading to imprisonment.

DAOs: The Reality

Most people familiar with DAOs see them not as self-governed states but self-governed software applications. DAOs' primary role is to manage on-chain smart contracts and decide when certain administrator-level permissions on those contracts should be exercised, amended, added, or removed.

DAOs, like many online communities that use Discord, emphasize participation over secrecy. Adding a DAO into the mix does not create a safe haven from anything, nor does it evade government regulation and security services' monitoring activities.

Case of the Taliban and DAOs

Consider the Taliban, an extremist group that uses cryptoprotocols, mainly WhatsApp, to coordinate their actions. The Taliban enjoys full autonomy within the sovereign borders of Afghanistan and presumably is free to use any software tool it desires. However, to our knowledge, the Taliban does not use DAOs.

DAOs: A Tool for Extremists?

If extremists are seeking a tool to spread their ideology, a DAO is not something they should consider. DAOs are a useful tool for reaching consensus on decisions such as moving a smart contract interest rate, not for disseminating high volumes of propaganda.

Therefore, it's critical to differentiate between the use of DAOs and the potential misuse by extremist groups. The current evidence indicates that DAOs are neither used by nor useful to terrorists or extremists.

Edited by Jonathan Stoker