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The organizers of an alt-right rally in Boston this weekend have vowed to move ahead with the event in the wake of violence at a similar event in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday.

The demonstration is just one of several so-called free speech rallies planned across the United States this week, with right-wing events planned later in the summer.

The rally on Saturday IS NOT CANCELED. Not sure where this rumor came from, the Boston Free Speech rallys organizers wrote on Facebook late Monday.

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Members of white nationalist protesters hold shields as they clash against a group of counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, August 12. Joshua Roberts/Reuters

Information about the potential shutdown was posted Monday on 4Chan, an anonymous internet forum that has become a home for hard-right ideologues. The same day Bostons mayor Martin Walsh said, I dont want them here. We dont need them here.

The group wrote online that the Boston Police Department and the city are ignoring their calls but that their permit for the rally remains.

Walsh said Monday that he is exploring ways to shut down the rally over fears of similar bloodshed to that in Charlottesville, where one counterprotester died and dozens were seriously injured after a car that police believewas driven by an alt-right member plowed into a group of pedestrians.

We are not in any way associated with the organizers of the Charlottesville rally, the Boston events organizers wrote on Facebook. But the event shares speakers in common with the violent Virginia rally.

Speakers at the event include alt-right figures such as Tim Baked Alaska Gionet, who was a speaker in Charlottesville. Kyle Based Stick Man Chapman and Joe Biggs, a former contributor to the conspiracy theory website InfoWars, will also be there.

Related: Trump retweets alt-right leader who has praised white supremacist Richard Spencer

The so-called alt-right movement is a loose-knit group of racist white nationalists, nationalists, conspiracy theoristsand misogynists.

Some of the speakers began to pull out of the Boston event Monday, including alt-right figure Gavin McInnes, who has written for racist websites, including Vdare, and is a contributor at The Rebel, an alt-right online media outlet.

In addition to Boston, rallies are also being planned for Saturday, August 19, in Mountain View, California; Los Angeles; New York City;Washington, D.C.;Austin, Texas; Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Seattle. These events are being organized by alt-right figure Jack Posobiec in opposition to Google and in solidarity with former Google engineer James Damore. Posobiec has said specifically said that the event is not an alt-right event but is open to anyone who values free speech.

Damore was fired as an engineer with the internet search giant last week after he wrote a memo criticizing the companys diversity policies. Damore said Tuesday that he does not want the alt-rights support. I do not support the alt-right, he told CNN Tech. Just because someone supports me doesnt mean I support them.

The neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, which has been promoting these events as part of what it branded the Summer of Hate, was shut down Monday following the Charlottesville rally after it mocked counterprotester Heather Heyer, who was killed when a car plowed into the crowd. We are going to start doing this nonstop. Across the country, the site said after the Charlottesville rally.

These rallies arent about popularizing white nationalism, readan anonymous post on 4Chan on Sunday, but about normalizing white nationalism.

We need more of these in the future, it said, hopefully with an even larger turnout.

Another rally is being planned for September 16 in Richmond, Virginia, around a monument to Confederate General Robert E. Lee to protest the removal of similar statues from public spaces in Civil Warera Southern states. White supremacist Richard Spencer is also seeking permission to speak next month at the University of Florida.

Counterprotests are being planned in response to the rally in Boston as well, with the Black Lives Matter civil rights group saying they will march against the alt-right.

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Where Are the Next Alt-Right, White Nationalist Rallies Planned? - Newsweek

Co-founder Jimmy Wales talks misinformation and the fight for truth at Wikimania 2017

The conference room filled with Wikipedia contributors and enthusiasts eager to hear from the websites co-founder, Jimmy Wales, on Aug. 11. Alongside Gabriella Coleman, an anthropologist specializing in hacker culture and online activism, Wales kicked off the discussion with the topics of information accuracy and misconceptions surrounding Wikipedia.

In the early days of Wikipedia, he said, there was a lot of misunderstanding in the press. (Wikipedia was) never as bad as we were made out to be. As Wales described it, the press would zero-in on the mistakes in the encyclopedia made by a small number of bad contributors.

At the same time, Wales said, the media would not focus on how passionate Wikipedias staff and contributors were about fixing these errors and promoting free, fact-based knowledge. There was never a time when Wikipedia was a write whatever you like venue, he added.

We always wanted to get to quality. When people complained about Wikipedia, they were never aware of how much more fake information was available online, Wales said during the talk held amidst a five-day Wikimania conference hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation in Montreal.

According to Evan Prodromou, a software developer, an open-source advocate and the keynotes moderator, when Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects first started, there were many questions about liability. Now, however, Wikipedia has become one of the cornerstones of truth and reliability on the internet, he said.

Coleman, who holds the Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy at McGill University, acknowledged that, five to 10 years ago, teachers such as herself were unhappy if students used Wikipedia for their research.

It is not that case anymore, she said. Many class projects encourage students to edit the Wikipedia page. I think part of that transition is the fact that pages went from basic overviews to very detailed and sometimes esoteric takes. She said many experts in a wide variety of fields contributed to that shift.

Prodromou later shifted the conversation to how Wikipedia defines truth in a post-truth society. Coleman mentioned that the website takes truth very seriously. In fact, she said, the laborious process of the editing stage demonstrates the quality of truth on Wikipedia.

She added that, because there are people, such as climate change deniers, who deny factual evidence, both convincing people of the truth and arriving at the truth is a difficult enterprise.

Its a reality, Coleman said, not only for Wikipedia but also in the industries of science and journalism. Now people trust Wikipedia because we can see the process to get to the truth. And thats a really big deal since you dont always see that with some trusted newspapers.

Wales and Coleman both agreed that Wikipedia is a space where information is presented in a more impartial way, with less bias than certain news organizations. I do believe it is important to sometimes acknowledge when you do have a bias, because thats a form of neutrality and you are explicit about it, Coleman said. Some newspapers do that, and some do not.

Wales said that, although Wikipedia is different from everyday news, it focuses more on being neutral and acknowledges uncertainty. We tend to write in a very authoritative style, and we admit when we are unsure, he said.

Coleman ended the conversation with a sentiment describing Wikipedias value beyond its fight for truth. People gain recognition among peers [through Wikipedia], and thats very satisfying and a way where the individual can shine, she said. But in certain cases, very large and complicated projects can only be achieved collectively. Wikipedia has a huge impact on the world, and more and more people want to be part of that.

Featured image: From left, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales; Harout Chitilian, the vice-chairman of Montreals executive committee; Katherine Maher, the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation; Christophe Henner of Wikimedia France and Benoit Rochon of Wikimedia Canada pose for the press at this years Wikimania conference in Montreal. Photo by Alain Lefort.

The evolution of Wikipedias reputation was last modified: August 15th, 2017 by Mina Mazumder

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The evolution of Wikipedia's reputation - The Concordian (subscription)

Al Sharpton is a pathetic creature.

Waving his ordained mantle, he draws riches from human misery.

And now, following Saturday's horrific events in Charlottesville, Va., Rev. Al Sharpton has popped up again. Writing in the Guardian, Sharpton promised to lead responsive action for the atrocity that has occurred. He is "mobilizing from the ground up and gathering in the nation's capital on 28 August for a Ministers March for Justice."

It sounds genuinely good. It isn't.

Like all his other activities, this march will use a pretense of moral righteousness for the return of monetary greed. After all, its organizer is Sharpton's own National Action Network.

While the network claims to pursue "one standard of justice" and civil rights, its words are just another pretense. The network's real purpose? Dredging up hundreds of thousands of dollars in "salary" for Sharpton's wallet. We should also assume that the good reverend collects significant tax-free expenses from his charity. Remember, even as he demands first class flights and 5-star hotel suites, Sharpton has long struggled to pay his taxes.

When it comes to God's work, every dollar helps.

The National Action Network is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Sharpton's greed. In 2005, just one year after running for U.S. president, Sharpton featured as a commercial representative for car loan-shark company, Loan Max. The reverend insisted that his behavior was moral.

In more recent years, Sharpton has found a new profitable venture: using young black bodies as piggy banks. Eric Garner, who was killed in a 2014 altercation with New York City police officers, was one such bank for Sharpton. As Mr. Garner's eldest child noted in a 2015 James O'Keefe video, Sharpton is "all about [the money]." In that same video, a fundraiser for killed Florida teen, Trayvon Martin, describes how Sharpton takes hefty percentages of charitable donations for "fees." As the activist puts it, Sharpton and his posse are "shakedown guys."

Somehow, the slippery Sharpton always escape these scandals. Today, he continues to be employed by MSNBC, hosting a show that remains a perpetual ratings disaster.

Of course, in his Guardian piece, Sharpton cultivates a different image: that of a thoughtful statesman. "During these difficult and tense times," he sermonizes, "people look toward leaders to calm tensions and encourage people to come together against evil."

Translation? The reverend stands ready to preach for a profit.

In 2014, I anointed Sharpton the most boring public figure of the year. He is, I said, "repetitive and tedious."

But I was wrong. Sharpton isn't just repetitive and tedious, he's grotesque and unyielding. There are many patriots for civil rights, but this reverend is just a huckster in holy clothes.

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Reverend-huckster Al Sharpton smells a Charlottesville profit - Washington Examiner

Eric Hausers first book features some universal themes pretty standard childrens story fare, really. Its a tale of honesty and teamwork and friendship written by an assistant principal at a Texas middle school.

But his rosy description was at odds with the green-skinned protagonist who smiled at children from the books cover: Pepe the frog, a cartoon character thats been adopted as a mascot of the alt-right movement and associated with white nationalism.

On Monday, the book, which Hauser self-published on Aug. 1 before it was picked up by a conservative-leaning publishing house, cost the assistant principal his position.

The book features allusions that may go over some childrens heads. The setting is a farm called Wishington. The antagonist is a bearded alligator named Alkah. Astute readers will recognize Covfefe cliff. But perhaps the most inflammatory aspect is the smiling cartoon frog, whichNBC News has called a popular white nationalist symbol. Pede, the name of the cartoon centipede that also graces the books cover,is also a term members of a Donald Trump-themed Reddit board use to refer to each other.

Spoiler alerts ahead, but Pepe and his centipede sidekick Pede start the book ecstatic that the old farmer hasleft after eight years of oppression. But Alkah and his minions have entrenched themselves in a pond that very much resembles a swamp and are threatening to spread throughout all of Wishington Farm. Pepe and Pede have one weapon to vanguish the gator: buds from the honesty tree.

Denton Independent School District officials say they removed Hauser as assistant principal at Rodriguez Middle School days after word of his book and its protagonistspread on social media. That happened at the same time that a Charlottesville rally of neo-Nazis, white nationalists and Ku Klux Klan members descended into violent chaos that left three dead. The school district said Hausers book had become a distraction to the learning process.

School starts Wednesday at the district, which educates about 28,000 students from different ethnic, social and economic backgrounds, a school district news release said.

We pride ourselves on providing a welcoming and nurturing environment to all students. Our staff is reflective of the community we serve, where all individuals are respected, Superintendent Jamie Wilson said in the release. We encourage our staff and students to be free-thinking and express their ideas, however, when these ideas interrupt the ability to learn, work or create divisiveness each of us is held accountable.

[Cadillac condemns casting call that sought actors for alt-right (neo-nazi) role in a Cadillac ad]

Hauser declined to be interviewed by The Washington Post, instead directing questions to his publisher, Post Hill Press. He released a statement via the school district:

Due to the controversy surrounding the book I have published, I think its best that I not serve as assistant principal at Rodriguez, Hauser said. His publisher said hed be moved to a new role. The students, the community, and the teachers are too important to me to subject them to all the negativity and disapproval resulting from this book. To my colleagues, I offer my deepest apologies if this has affected them or their families in any negative way.

Illustration from The Adventures of Pepe and Pede by Eric Hauser. (Post Hill Press)

That was a change from Hausers earlier statements. He told Fort Worth NBC-affiliate KXAS that he was using Pepe just as a lighthearted way of expressing maybe some conservative values.

But, asThe Washington Posts Abby Ohlheiser wrote: The frogis talked about as a green manifestation of theInternets darkfringes, a mascot whose popularity there rivals that of Trumps. A Pepe avatar on Twitter is now generally read as asign of analt-right affiliation.

On Monday, Anthony Ziccardi, a spokesman for Post Hill Press, the conservative-leaning publishing house, defended the book, saying it espoused conservative values, but was not incendiary.

Theres no hidden messages here, Ziccardi said. Theres no hidden agenda.He created this character and he didnt realize all the backlash that was going to come from it and quite frankly, neither did I. Really, the ultimate theme is law and order.This is a feel-good story in support of good versus evil. And thats what we should be embracing.

[White supremacist stabs interracial couple after seeing them kiss at bar, police say]

According to his principal profile, Hauser started out teaching English and history at McMath Middle School in Denton, Tex. After seven years, he got a masters degree in education administration and become assistant principal at Ryan High School, then was hired at Rodriguez.

On the profile, he talked about being grateful for the opportunity to open the districts newest middle school.

Together, we will build a foundation of trust, tradition, and high expectations that will continue to inspire and support our current and future stakeholders for years to come, he wrote. I am honored and excited to be a part of this growing development, and I look forward to the lasting relationships we will build together.

Abby Ohlheiser contributed.

This post has been updated.

Read more:

A man clobbered protesters with a bike lock at a Berkeley rally, police say. The Internet went looking for him.

A public university refused to pay for an antiabortion speaker. Now students are suing.

She wanted to criticize Black Lives Matter in a college speech. A protest shut her down.

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An assistant principal wrote a children's book about alt-right mascot Pepe the frog. It cost him his job. - Washington Post

Fort Worth Star Telegram

'Pepe the Frog' book leads to Denton educator's removal Fort Worth Star Telegram Denton school district officials are reassigning an assistant principal whose self-published children's book drew controversy and became a distraction to the district because of its main character: Pepe the Frog. Pepe the Frog is an internet meme ... Texas school official booted for book about Pepe the FrogThe Times of Israel (blog) Not Just Stories: Six Children's Books For Fighting FascismD Magazine Texas school official removed over book's supremacist symbolWOAI NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth -Motherboard all 9 news articles »

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'Pepe the Frog' book leads to Denton educator's removal - Fort Worth Star Telegram