|
|
|
|
Online hate is growing
Increased work from OHPI has tackled the far right, homophobia and more
Dear Supporter,
In a special mailing we recently warned of threats of violence against people who planned to join the anti-racism rally on July 18. We urged you not to give in to extremism, and for any who intended going the counter rally not to alter their plans out of fear. On the day of the rallies NSW Police seized a gun from a Reclaim Australia organiser who later travelled on a bus bringing inter-state supporters to bolster the far-rights numbers at the Melbourne rally.
With future rallies planned, Victoria Police have expressed concern about an escalating threat to their safety. NSW Police also recently highlighted far right extremism as one of their biggest challenges. Despite the threat, we were please to be part of over 5,000 people who joined the counter rally against far-right extremism. Our report on the rally has been widely circulated and shared over 2,200 times on social media.
Our regular work has also continues. This month we provided the July Position Paper for the Kantor Centre or the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv. The paper examines the idea of a conflict between freedom of speech and freedom of religion. In it we argue there is no conflict if we draw a distinction between attacks on the ideas of religion and attacks on people belonging to that religion. We published a briefing debunking the argument that Muslims present a "threat to the Australian way of life". Another two briefings examined homophobic Facebook pages, see them here and here. Our reports about an antisemitic Facebook page led to that page's closure and our briefing details the hate which removed as a result of this action.
On the ground, in addition to the anti-racism rally, we attended the Advancing Community Cohesion conference in Western Sydney, where experts from different arenas - politics, academia, and civil society - discussed the dangers posed to social cohesion in Australia. We also attended the Eid Dinner organised by the Islamic Research and Education Academy in Melbourne. We also had very productive high level phone meeting with representatives of Twitter. The discussion covered concrete steps to improve our capacity to protect the public from online harm and Twitter's capacity to better enforce their terms of service, including with respect to local nuance.
Thanks to your support, our Facebook presence recently grew to over 17500. Our mailing numbers lag significantly behind this. If you have been forwarded this newsletter and haven't joined, please do so here. Our next newsletter will share a major new efforts against online hate. We look forward to your interest and support in turning ideas into reality. In the mean time, it was great to meet so many of you in person at various events recently and thank you for all your support for the work of the Online Hate Prevention Institute. We simply couldn't do this without you.
Regards,
Dr Andre Oboler
CEO, Online Hate Prevention Institute
|
|
|
If you received this e-mail from a friend, please join our mailing list. If you have not already done so, please join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
|
|
|
Melbourne Rally against Racism
OVer 5,000 Melbournians took a stand against racism. OHPI were pround to join them
|
|
On July 18, 2015, OHPI joined over 5,000 Melbournians for an anti-racism rally outside the Victorian Parliament. The rally was called to counter a serious of Reclaim Australia rallies around the country, and which targeted Melbourne for a national push. Reclaim Australia were joined by the United Patriotic Front who together drew a crowd of 110 people.
Reclaim Australia is an anti-Muslim movement which splintered from the Australian Defense League, itself one of many off shoots of the English Defence League from the UK. The United Patriotic Front is itself a spliter group that seperated from Reclaim Australia. These groups have grown and mobilised through social media, and particularly through their Facebook pages. The Rally's Facebook page claims its agenda is: "to stand together to stop halal tax, sharia law & islamisation". The page uses hyperbole, fear-mongering and stereotyping to present Australian Muslims as a "threat to our way of life". The aim of these groups is to setup a divide between "us" and "them", normalising hatred against Australian Muslims and presenting them as a threat to "our way of life". OHPI's response to this can be seen here.
In the lead up to the rally a video posted on United Patriots Front's Facebook page promoted violence against any opposition. People from all walks of life stood up against this intimidation to make a statement that racism has no place in Australian life. You can read our detailed coverage of the event here. You can also follow the robust discussion that took place on the rally and related issues on our Facebook page here, here and here.
The briefing also highlighted three items of Holocaust denial to report along with instructions on how to do it.
|
|
Kantor Centre publishes OHPI report
Dr Andre Oboler wrote the July Position Paper published by the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry. It discussed the line between free speech and freedom of religion.
|
|
|
Advancing Community Cohesion Conference
On July 16 & 17, OHPI participated in the Advancing Community Cohesion Conference in Sydney. This high level conference was attended by academics, civil society and government. Read more.
|
|
|
Australian Law Students' Association
On July 8, OHPI participated in the annual conference of the Australian Law Students' Association. We spoke with Professor Geoff Holland and Wen Wu on a pannel entitled "Social media, Australian culture and the law".
|
|
|
Antisemitic Facebook Page removed
OHPI reported and got removed an antisemitic Facebook page "Yorkshire Anti Communists". As we discuss in our briefing, the page was using communism as an excuse to attack Jews in general.
|
|
|
EU body calls out online hate speech
The European Commission Against Racism & Intolerance (ECRI) has acknowledged online hate speech as a serious threat and called for its criminalisation in its annual report. Read more.
|
|
|
Reporting Homophobic Facebook page
OHPI is currently running a campaign to report a homophobic Facebook page "Resistance Against Sodomite Fascisti". To read more about the page and to learn how to report it, go here.
because Jews were the original “other”, at least in Western culture - See more at: http://ohpi.org.au/the-why-of-rising-antisemitism/#sthash.1NIzi3I1.dpuf
Jews were the original “other”, at least in Western culture - See more at: http://ohpi.org.au/the-why-of-rising-antisemitism/#sthash.1NIzi3I1.dpuf
Jews were the original “other”, at least in Western culture - See more at: http://ohpi.org.au/the-why-of-rising-antisemitism/#sthash.1NIzi3I1.dpuf
|
|
|
OHPI attends the IREA Eid Dinner
Dr Andre Oboler, on behalf of OHPI, attended the Eid celebration dinner organised by the Islamic Research and Education Academy. You can read about the event here.
because Jews were the original “other”, at least in Western culture - See more at: http://ohpi.org.au/the-why-of-rising-antisemitism/#sthash.1NIzi3I1.dpuf
Jews were the original “other”, at least in Western culture - See more at: http://ohpi.org.au/the-why-of-rising-antisemitism/#sthash.1NIzi3I1.dpuf
Jews were the original “other”, at least in Western culture - See more at: http://ohpi.org.au/the-why-of-rising-antisemitism/#sthash.1NIzi3I1.dpuf
|
|
|
Reddit announces fresh code of conduct
After years of defending unfettered free speech, Reddit has decided to ban certain hateful speech and behaviour from the online discussion platform. Read more here.
|
|
|
Reporting "Gays Should Be Fit & Muscular #fpsgb" Page
OHPI is also calling its supporters to report another homophobic, body shaming page "Gays should be fit and muscular #fpsbg". Read more here and report the page.
|
|
|
Calling out popular anti-Muslim myths
In a briefing, we tackle the popular anti-Muslim argument that somehow their presence in Australia is a "threat to our way of life". We also share a video in which an Australian Islamic scholar explains the controversial concepts Sharia and Halal.
|
|
|
How to report YouTube comments
Until recently, YouTube had no mechanism to report a racist or hateful comments (you could only report the videos). The platform has just instated that. Here's an illustrated guide to reporting hateful comments to a YouTube video.
|
|
|
OHPI publishes an e-book
OHPI has published an e-book "How to Combat Online Antisemitism". It is a guidebook to recognising, combating and reporting online antisemitism on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. It can be bought on Amazon (Kindle version) and on Scribd (PDF version). Read more.
|
|
|
Victorian State Parliamentary Iftar
In late June we attended the Australian Intercultural Society's Victorian State Parliamentary Iftar Dinner. Acting Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Tim Cartwright, opened the evening speaking about Victoria's multiculturalism.
|
|
|
Iftar in the Home
The Australian Intercultural Society coordinates Iftars in the home. We were pleased to attend one hosted by Ahmed and Derya with Ahmet Keskin (Executive Director of AIS), Councillor Ken Ong (Melbourne City Council) and Tomm Paulsen (Consul General of Norway).
|
|
|
- The Vice Magazine interviewed OHPI for an article on how to fight online trolls.
The briefing also highlighted three items of Holocaust denial to report along with instructions on how to do it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
