Opinion Articles
OHPI regularly contributes to the media, both as experts (the our news section), and through opinion articles published in the mainstream press and the blogosphere. These are some the publications relevant to OHPI’s mission that have been written by our staff, volunteers, advisers and partner organisations.
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The hatred sown in the network: digital antisemitism
Jessica Palese writes for the Online Hate Prevention Institute about online antisemitism in Italy.
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The Indian response to @shamiwitness and the abuse of social media
There is a buzz here in India at the news that an Indian man, Mehdi Masroor Biswas, was arrested in the early hours of Saturday morning for operating the popular pro-ISIS Twitter account @shamiwitness. The account shared links to beheading videos and interviewed foreign fighters before they left to join ISIS and after they arrived.…
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It’s time Facebook repents
Originally published as: Andre Oboler, “It’s Time Facebook Repents“, Jerusalem Post, October 3, 2014. On the morning of Rosh Hashannah a petition signed by 10,306 people arrived at Facebook Headquarters asking the company to change their policy on Holocaust denial. Facebook’s current position on Holocaust denial is that “the mere statement of denying the Holocaust…
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Rise of Anti-Semitism From This War is No Accident
This article was published as: Andre Oboler, “Rise of Anti-Semitism From This War Is No Accident“, The Australian, August 11, 2014, Commentary, Page 10. It was also published as: Andre Oboler, “The Useful Idiots’ “Gaza Holocaust”“, The Jerusalem Post – Blogs, August 8, 2014. WHILE no civilian casualties are good, reports are emerging that strongly…
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Loving Nazis and Hating Muslims
Commentary (7/7/2014) An article OHPI’s CEO published a couple of weeks ago in the Australian Jewish News on the problem of a small number of Jews vilifying Muslims online, and linking up with neo-Nazis to do so, is of particular relevance in light of recent news around the burning alive of a Palestinian child in…
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Social media connects far-right groups
Last week the far-right Australian political party Australia First and Australian members of the Greek far-right political party Golden Dawn held a rally in Brisbane. A new briefing from the Online Hate Prevention Institute (OHPI) examines how these groups connected through social media following revelations of on 60 Minutes on April 13 that Golden Dawn…
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Golden Dawn’s Australian Fascists
The Greek Neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn now has branches in Australia, and with the help of Social Media, they have connected with the Australian far-right party Australia First. Brought together through social media, the fascists stood side by side at a rally last week in the Australia city of Brisbane. The globalisation of the far-right,…
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Ben Garrison on Trolls
“This page wasn’t removed. We reviewed the page you reported for harassment. Since it did not violate our community standards, we did not remove it. Thanks for your report.” This is the message I received after reporting a hate page on Facebook. Near the top of the hate page was a statement that encouraged the…
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Racial discrimination: they just don’t get it
The underlying problem the Government is facing over changes to the Racial Discrimination Act is that it still doesn’t understand the point the Judge was making in the Bolt case. It still doesn’t understand what Bolt did wrong. They don’t understand the danger to the social cohesion of Australia that comes from actions like Bolt’s.…
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If you can’t Recognize Hate Speech, the sunlight can’t penetrate
This week the Online Hate Prevention Institute (OHPI), an Australian Charity which I have the privilege of leading as its CEO, released my major new report into Hate Speech on Facebook. OHPI seeks to facilitate a change in online culture so that hate in all its forms becomes as socially unacceptable online as it is in “real…