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‘Hacking Hate’ Review: A Voyeuristic Documentary Infiltrates Online White Supremacy
Simon Klose's exposé of digital hate speech, 'Hacking Hate,' centers a fascinating journalistic subject.
Vingren is a committed and knowledgeable subject, referred to by some as the real-life “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” Her proclivity for tracing online footprints comes in handy during “Hacking Hate,” when she not only creates numerous fake profiles to court invites from white nationalist groups, but finds a trail of digital breadcrumbs where most would not think to look. The film’s aesthetic approach injects its story with a sense of paranoia, between a heightened, saturated color palette that nudges human faces into the realm of the unreal — as if to match Vingren’s deep-fake profiles, it always feels ever-so-slightly uncanny — and the recurring use of drone shots and voyeuristic long lenses. Beginning by observing “alt right” figureheads on YouTube, from Britain’s boyishly emphatic Paul Joseph Watson to Sweden’s off-putting bodybuilder/Hitler apologist The Golden One, “Hacking Hate” creates a digital framework for its real-world pursuit of knowledge.
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