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Online hate is rising as more people spend more time online. We're on the front lines monitoring the hate, the fake news and the conspiracies on COVID-19.
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The rise in online hate during Coronavirus

Dear Supporter, 

It's been six weeks since our last newsletter. The Coronavirus and resulting lock downs mean more people spending more time online, which has led to a major rise in online hate. There are new challenges from conspiracy theories and fake news. We've dramatically increase both our activity in response, as you'll see by scrolling down this newsletter.

In addition to our recently completed campaign on Islamophobia, we launched a Special Focus on Coronavirus. We increased our short term capacity with over 500 additional hours of volunteer work scheduled over the next month. Numerous articles are in the works on Coronavirus content and for our May Campaign tackling incitement to hate and violence against women.

We saw a major win after Dymocks removed 55 versions of Hitler's Mein Kampf in response to our campaign and additional work by the Jewish Community Council of Victoria and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. 

Less positively, the announcements of our campaigns on Islamophobia and antisemitism let to barrages of hate filled comments. We document the Islamophobic comments, efforts of "whataboutism" seeking to undermine the campaigns, a comment promoting classic antisemitic conspiracy theories, a comment promoting Holocaust denial. We have much more on file.

Those who "like" our work out number the haters, but it's clear the haters are more engaged. Please do what you can to stand up against the hate. Sharing a post, rather than just liking it, adding a comment, inviting people to join a campaign, make a donation, reading an extra article and discuss it with friends and family. Forward this e-mail to a friend. Any energy against the hate helps.


Stay well and stay safe,

Dr Andre Oboler
CEO, Online Hate Prevention Institute

If you received this e-mail from a friend, please join our mailing list. You can also join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Our work is supported by donations.

 

Campaigns Update

Coronavirus Special Feature

We've been documenting the evidence of rising racism, hate speech and fake news during the pandemic in our Special Focus on Coronavirus. We will continue adding to this along side our other work.
Campaign to Stop Online Misogyny

Our May campaign to stop online misogyny just started . You can support our stop online misogyny fundraiser  with a donation or by liking it and inviting others to join us. 
Campaign to Tackle Antisemitism

Our June campaign will be on antisemitism. A flood of hate at its launch led to a few early article (see below). You can support our tackling antisemitism fundraiser with a donation or sharing it. 
Islamophobia on the Internet

Our Campaign Against Islamophobia on the Internet ran through April. The campaign was successfully completed.
Tackling Online Racism against Indigenous Australians

Our March campaign tackled Online Racism against Indigenous Australians. The campaign was successfully completed.

 

Recent Articles & Activities

Responding to COVID-19
Includes: racism against Chinese and Asians, Islamophobia, antisemitism, vilification of atheists, homophobia, conspiracy theories, fake news and more.
During the Coronavirus...

This article examines at anti-Asian racism and conspiracy theories about the Coronavirus pandemic.
Using Twitter for Hate

This briefing looks at one Twitter user's Coronavirus related fake news, Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia and hate.
Coronavirus and the Trolls

This article looks at a trolling account that engaged in anti-Asian racism, antisemitism, attacks on atheists and homophobia. 
Coronavirus Incident & Islamophobia

A Coronavirus related incident involving a Muslim woman was used by anti-Muslim groups to make Islamophobic generalisations and advance their agenda of anti-Muslim hate.
The Coronavirus Conspiracy Theorist and Holocaust Denial

This investigation started with a Holocaust denial comment, but quickly led to a huge amount of conspiracy theories around COVID-19.
From Food to Hate

There is a particular strand of anti-Chinese racism based around food. This is not a new phenomena, but with Coronavirus it’s taken on a new twist.
COVID-19: Coronavirus and Fake News

Covid-19 has affected us all. We have published a briefing to debunk some of fake news and misinformation that has been spread and is magnifying people's fears. Some of this misinformation is deliberately malicious. 
Articles on Antisemitism
Mein Kampf Discussion

Following our recent briefing calling on Dymocks not to sell editions of Main Kampf that lacked commentary, and a lively debate on Facebook, we published an additional briefing on our position. 
55 Editions of Mein Kampf Removed!

J-wire reports how our work with JCCV & ECAJ led to 55 of the 60 editions of Mein Kampf sold on the Dymocks website being removed. The remainder include commentary / educational resources.
Antisemitic Narratives

While possibly trying to help, this user's comment on Facebook showed a high absorption of traditional antisemitism conspiracy theories about Jews, money and the media.
There's None so blind...

Using comments to an article re: Hitler's Mein Kampf, we examine blindness through ignorance. People comment without reading, engage in "whataboutism" and try hijack discussions.
Articles on Islamophobia
Islamophobia at Campaign Launch

Our announcement that we were running a campaign on Islamophobia led to a flood of anti-Muslim hate comments. We share some of them in this briefing. 
Political Online Islamophobia from the United States
One of OHPI's volunteers has written a briefing as part of our April campaign to target Islamophobia. Orisis Parikh is based in the U.S. and reported on Islamophobia in the context of U.S. politics
A Reflection on Islamophobia

A written reflection on first-hand experience of Islamophobia has been provided by one of OHPI’s supporters as part of our campaign to tackle Islamophobia on the Internet.

 

Articles on Racism Against Indigenous Australians
Racism Against Indigenous Australians on Facebook
We have published a new briefing which looks at current racist memes targeting Indigenous Australians.  We first examined instances of this back in 2012. We are asking that Facebook address these reoccurring posts. 
Racism Against Indigenous Australians on Twitter
Twitter has proven a positive tool for Indigenous Australians through the IndigenousX Twitter account. In our recent briefing, we look at this, but at the same time examine some disturbingly racist Tweets towards Indigenous Australians.
More Racism Against Indigenous Australians on Twitter
In rounding-out our March campaign of tackling racism against Indigenous Australians, we published a second article looking at online racism as it appears on Twitter. In this case we focused on a particularly problematic Twitter account.
Government Engagement
Australian Human Rights Commission

We have been working closely with the Australia Human Rights Commission and thank Commissioner Chin Tan and his staff for their excellent, and vitally needed, work during this pandemic. 
Online Safety Submission

Our submission to the Federal Government's Communication's Department on plans to update the Online Safety Act has now been published.

The challenge ahead

The content we have published in the last six weeks (as you've seen above) and the even greater volume of data we have captures but not published, highlights the urgent need to increase our monitoring of the rising tide of hate, conspiracy theories and fake news resulting from Coronavirus.

We are meeting this challenge as best we can, and we thank the volunteers who have been contributing time and energy towards this goal. The increase in work, however, is causing a sharp rise in our costs. Monitoring, analysing and writing up the data, publish the articles, promoting them, moderate the resulting comments, and investigate the resulting hate, all involves real and unavoidable direct costs as well as adding to overhead costs. 

At the same time, our fundraising campaigns have been hit hard.
Thank you again to everyone that has donated. Every donation really helps. There remains a vast gulf between what we need to continue operating at this level and what the public are able to provide, in light of the economic crisis COVID-19 is causing. We have been raising this with those who might be able to support us, including government.

Any help you can provide at this time would make a real difference. Whether it is a general donation, support for a specific fundraiser, helping to share one of the campaigns, forwarding this e-mail to people who are interest, or raising the need to support this work with government and businesses, all help is appreciated. 


In the Media...

Tip: Use the "Discuss" links to join our discussions on news about online hate and extremism at our Facebook page.

Articles discussion OHPI's work: Articles of interest related to online hate
Copyright © 2020 Online Hate Prevention Institute, All rights reserved.


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