Type of site | Holocaust denial Antisemitism Antiziganism Anti-LGBT Far-right politics |
|---|---|
| Available in | Hungarian |
| Created by | Előd Novák József Hering Tamás Esze János Lantos |
| URL | kuruc |
| Launched | February 1, 2006; 19 years ago (2006-02-01) |
| Current status | Online |
Kuruc.info is afar-rightHungarian online portal registered inCalifornia,United States,[1] affiliated with politicianElőd Novák.[2][3] The website often harbours extremeanti-semitic sentiments,[2][1][4] including frequentHolocaust denial,[5] and frequently publishesanti-Romani andhomophobic content.[2][6]
The first iteration of the website, kettosallampolgarsag.hu, was created to support the2004 Hungarian dual citizenship referendum.[7] The website then illegally published personal information about publicist Imre Para-Kovács.[8] As the website's focus broadened, and its traffic kept growing even after the referendum had ended, its editors decided to start Kuruc.info on 01 February 2006,[7] named after the "Kuruc", the rebels against theHabsburg monarchy who fought for Hungarian independence between 1671 and 1711.[9] Until 2019, Kuruc.info's staff was anonymous,[3] and the website was registered in the name of a private individual, first inScottsdale, Arizona,[10] thenHealdsburg, California.[1] The website first gained notoriety for its "moreSZDSZ, morepaedophiles" campaign before the2006 Hungarian parliamentary election,[11] which was also closely affiliated with the newly formedJobbik party.[12] In 2006, Kuruc.info also posted photographs, addresses, and phone numbers of judges and prosecutors who had participated in legal proceedings against anti-government protestors.[13] Several of the officials whose details were posted received threatening phone calls and letters.[14] After this, the website still routinely published the personal data of individuals they opposed.[15]
In 2008, the web servers of Kuruc.info were shut down[16] after requests from the Hungarian government.[17] However, the website quickly came back online.[10] In 2012, the Hungarian government requested the American government to shut the website down again without success.[18] Around the same time, it was revealed that the website was registered under the name of Bela Varga, a winemaker fromHealdsburg, California[19] who denied his involvement with the website, claiming that he registered it for a friend.[20]
Although Kuruc.info was heavily associated with theJobbik political party in its early days,[11] it became increasingly critical of the party around 2016, mainly due to Jobbik's drift toward a more centre-right ideology, which was strongly opposed by the website's owner[3] and previous Jobbik vice presidentElőd Novák[21] This split, as well as the emergence of other right-wing websites such as 888.hu and Pesti Srácok saw the website's popularity decline, dropping from the 34th most popular Hungarian website to 96th in the span of 4 years.[22][23] After years of denying his involvement with Kuruc.info,[21] Előd Novák revealed his ownership of the website in 2019, as well as the involvement of ex-journalist József Hering, ex-MIÉP politician Tamás Esze, and publicist János Lantos.[3]
Kuruc.info considers itself to be more right-wing than the far-right Hungarian political party known as theJobbik, distinguishing itself fromBarikád, which is regarded as Jobbik's "semi-official online news organ".[9] Kuruc.info nevertheless maintains a relationship with Jobbik through advertisements and payment to personnel.[2]
since the formation of the more radicalOur Homeland Movement party in 2018, the gradually more moderate Jobbik party has fallen out of favour and even become one of the main enemies in the news of the Kuruc portal. According to the articles of Kuruc.info , the Jobbik party has become synonymous with ideological betrayal.[24]
Categories on the site include "anti-Hungarianism", "Gypsy-crime", "Jewish crime", "migrant crime", "economic news",[2] where there is more discussion of the economic crimes of Jews and communists, and a "humor" section where one can find derogatory jokes about Jews,Romani, and communists. Users engage in commentary about the website's publications and maintain an activesite forum.[9]
Anti-Semitic jokes were heard more frequently at rallies, and a Web site, called kuruc.info (after the Kuruc, anti-Habsburg rebels of the seventeenth century), began to play a significant role in Jobbik's internal politics. Kuruc.info rails against "outsiders" of all kinds. Its best-known column, "Gypsycrime," collects anti-Roma "facts." There is a "Jewcrime" feature as well; one recent article, accompanied by a caricature of a hook-nosed man, his face spread onto a lampshade, jeered at the "myth" of Auschwitz. Contributors, who are anonymous, regularly post the names, photographs, and telephone numbers of "liberal"—i.e., Jewish—journalists, intellectuals, and public figures, and call on readers to harass them by mail or by phone... Kuruc.info is run out of a server in Healdsburg, California, by a Hungarian-American with extreme-right views. This makes it impossible for the Hungarian government to shut it down. Officially, Jobbik has no relationship with the explicitly racist Web site, because, officially, Jobbik is not anti-Semitic. But Barikád advertises on kuruc.info, and Jobbik offers the site support in other ways.
