Update December 2014 – WIN!
OHPI has been campaigning for the hate page “Take Back Australia” to be closed since the 2nd of October 2014. We’re pleased to report that on December 11th 2014, the day after International Human Rights Day, Facebook finally closed this vile page. On October 10th, prior to coming down, the page has 31,946 supporters. It has been growing rapidly, with over 300 supporters joining in the previous week alone. The original briefing from October is below and highlights the sort of content which was being reported by Facebook users, and which for months the company was failing to act upon.
The bigots are on the run. They have created a new page (ID #763065747072290, the old page has ID # 261446097292220) and are now trying to fake it. They are trying to claim this new page is the original page and they got Facebook to restore it. One (rather massive) hole in that claim is that the new page has only 3,500 as at December 16th, rather than the 31k+ supporters the previous page had. Another is that we document the unique IDs of the pages we monitor, and as shown above this is a different ID for a different page. Finally, there is the confirmation from Facebook that the page has been removed (see above). Fake claims that a page has not been removed are often made by hate pages to discourage people reporting them. They want to bluff their way into people thinking they have Facebook’s approval to continue spreading their particular brand of hate. It also ties in to people’s desire to join something that is successful, rather than joining a page of losers who have already been banned once, and will likely be banned again.
On October 10th 2014 the Online Hate Prevention Institute launched “Fight Against Hate” a new online system for reporting online hate. Users should still first report content using the platform providers reporting tools, but after this they can now report it through “Fight Against Hate”. The new system provides transparency so OHPI and our supporters (human rights organisations, government agencies, community bodies, and researchers) and see how the platforms respond, and how long it takes them to get it right.
Article about the Fight Against Hate system can be seen in The Big Smoke and in the Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane issues of Mx. Further details about the new system are available, and registrations to use it are now open. If you see a new copy of this page page, or any other, please report it through fightagainsthate.com
Previous content from October 2nd 2014…
The Facebook page “Take Back Australia” (ID # 261446097292220) was created on September 15, 2012. Today it is a fairly large page with 24,144 likes. The page, which promotes bigotry, has grown 18% since last week and is most popular in Sydney with people aged 25 to 34.
This briefing discusses the nature of this page, and provides examples of hate speech we found which breaches Facebook’s community standards. We also provide instructions for reporting the various forms of hate speech as well as the page itself. We ask for your help in reporting the page and its content, and in sharing this briefing (see the icons above) so others can help as well. Let’s get this fixed!
Contents
- Examples of Hate Speech from the page
- Xenophobia – focused on asylum seekers and migrants to Australia
- Anti-Muslim Hate – a number of different flavours of anti-Muslim hate were present
- Misogyny – focused on former Prime Minister Julia Gillard
- Pushing Back – discussed how some are challenging the hate, and a word on safety
- Facebook’s reporting system
- Other ways to help
Hate Speech
For each of the items discussed below, please click the link to load it in Facebook so you can then report it (instructions below).
Xenophobia
The Macquarie Dictionary defines Xenophobia as “fear or hatred of foreigners”. This is expressed on the page through posts like:
Click to see this post on Facebook – and then report it
Click to see this image on Facebook – and then report it
Anti-Muslim Hate
OHPI categories Anti-Muslim hate into 7 types based on our major report into this topic, “Islamophobia on the Internet: The growth of online hate targeting Muslims“.
The topics are:
- Muslims as a Security Threat or Threat to Public Safety
- Muslims as a Cultural Threat
- Muslims as an Economic Threat
- Content Dehumanising or Demonizing Muslims
- Threats of Violence, Genocide and Direct Hate Targeting Muslims
- Hate Targeting Refugees / Asylum Seekers
- Other Forms of Hate Speech
Multiple categories of anti-Muslim hate have been seen on the page, including the follwing examples:
Muslims as a security threat, done in the style of classic wartime propaganda
Click to see this post on Facebook – and then report it
Dehumanisation of Muslims, with implications of violence towards them
Click to see this image on Facebook – and then report it
Muslims as a security threat by way of cultural threat
Click to see this post on Facebook – and then report it
Muslims as a cultural threat, citing those who disagree as enablers
Click to see this post on Facebook – and then report it
Further information about our work on anti-Muslim hate can be found on our resource page.
Misogyny
While Australia has freedom of political communication, some discussion about politicians relates not to their policies but to attacks based on their race, gender, religion etc. We can see this on this page in the nature of the attacks against then Prime Minister Julia Gillard which cross into misogyny (hate of women) rather than a discussion of politics.
Click to see this image on Facebook – then report it as hate speech
While not themselves demostrating misogyny, the hate directed against Julia Gillard (at least partly on the basis of her gender, based on other posts) was carried over into general hate posts like the following:
Click to see this image on Facebook
Click to see this image on Facebook
Even in political communication there are limits, and posts like the following, indicating support for violence against a politician, certainly not acceptable in Australia:
Click to see this image on Facebook
This post is not far off one of our previous briefings that looked at pages calling for both Julia Gillard and Tony Abbot’s death.
Pushing back
The page has recently seen a number of individuals try to talk down those advocating bigotry. In the page’s more recent anti-Muslim push, many comments have seen notable responses calling for discussion and education.
e.g. Countering claims by pointing out excessive generalisations
e.g. Reversing arguments by pointing out their aggressive hypocrisy
e.g. Mocking the quality of the bigots posts
There have also been several attempts to specifically dismantle racist arguments, with hate-mongers being pushed to argue semantics as the common defense against educated and better informed members of the public.
Facebook’s reporting system
Unfortunately one particular post on the page brings us back to the argument of Facebook’s poor reporting system.
Click to see this image on Facebook – and then report it
(Choose “I think it shouldn’t be on Facebook”, then “something else”, then “this advocates violence or harm to a person or animal”, then click to submit to Facebook for review)
Whilst a number of comments are in support of the individual, they are also negatively targeted by many of the page’s followers. In our guides and briefings we have often highlighted how Facebook’s reporting system encourages members to engage with those whose content they are reporting, and how this can put the person trying to report the content at risk. This is yet another example of this problem. We again call on Facebook to remove this option when it comes to pages. We also remind readers that one should never engage directly with a hate page. Doing so enables two-way communication and temporarily treats the person as one of your friends so they can see more of your profile and potentially use the information for both direct harassment and indirect harassment target friends and family.
How to report an image on Facebook
First, click on the link to load the images at Facebook, from there you can follow the steps below.
- Below the image look for the menu item called “Options”, click it, then select “Report Photo”
- Select I think it shouldn’t be on Facebook and click Continue
- Select This insults or humiliates me or someone else, as racism is included in the faded description underneath, then click Continue.
Do not attempt to message the offending party, as this opens up two-way communication and you may become subject to personal harassment Click Submit to Facebook for Review.
- Once the report has been submitted you can click Done to close the reporting interface.
How to report a comment on Facebook
- If you move the cursor to the top right of a comment a cross will appear.
- When your cursor is over the cross it will pop up a tooltip allowing you to click to hide the comment.Comments must be hidden before they can be reported.
- Click Report to report the comment.
- Current Facebook comment reporting initially requires selecting if it is about you or someone else.Selecting No, this is about someone else will allow you to report hate speech and other offensive content.
- Select Hate Speech and click Continue.
- Select the type of hate, in this instance towards A religious group, then click Continue.
- Do not attempt to message the offending party, as this opens up two-way communication and you may become subject to personal harassmentClick Submit to Facebook for Review.
- Once the report has been submitted you can click Done to close the reporting interface.
How to report a page on Facebook
Visit the page by clicking here.
- Select the … to view page interaction options, and click Report Page.
- Select I think it shouldn’t be on Facebook and click Continue.
- Select It’s hate speech and click Continue.
- Select the type of hate, in this instance towards A religious group, then click Continue.
- Click Submit to Facebook for Review.
- Once the report has been submitted you can click Done to close the reporting interface.
How to report a post on Facebook
- If you move the cursor to the top right of a post an arrow will appear.Click the arrow to the top right of the post and click I don’t like this post.
- Select I think it shouldn’t be on Facebook and click Continue.
- Select how the post is offensive; in this case one would assume It goes against my views, then click Continue.
- Do not attempt to message the offending party, as this opens up two-way communication and you may become subject to personal harassmentClick Submit to Facebook for Review.
- Once the report has been submitted you can click Done to close the reporting interface.
Other ways to help
Please help us get this page removed more quickly by going to the top of the page and using the share icons. This will help spread the word so others can use this briefing to report this page and its content.
You can support OHPI’s work more generally by liking our Facebook page and joining our mailing list. We also accept donations, which are tax deductible in Australia, to support our work.