Publications
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Neo-Nazis April Fools’ Day
When researching extremism, particularly online extremism, one needs to be conscious of many layers of depth. Peeling that onion takes time, effort and expertise. Experts are needed to raise the alarm when there is an emerging threat, but also not to play into the hands of neo-Nazis when they engage in attention-seeking publicity stunts.
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Report of the Inquiry into anti-vilification protections
The Online Hate Prevention Institute warmly welcomes the report of the Inquiry into anti-vilification protections which was tabled today in the Victorian Parliament. The Inquiry undertook extensive consultation. Committee members were deeply engaged and worked in a spirit of cooperation to ensure the best possible outcome could be reached for the Victorian community. The report…
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Facebook resorts to intimidation as publishing paradigms clash
Overnight Facebook ramped up its efforts to pressure the Australian Government into dropping a proposed law that would see online platforms pay media companies for the use of their content. The latest move saw all content linking to the sites of Australian news organisations vanish from Facebook. This has left the Facebook pages of a…
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Submission on Extremist Movements & Radicalism in Australia
In December 2020 the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) commenced an Inquiry into extremist movements and radicalism in Australia. Our Submission on Extremist Movements & Radicalism in Australia highlights the importance of the removal of the online pathways to radicalisation.
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Extremism in Australia
An Australia Day weekend camping trip in the Grampian Ranges by neo-Nazis has caused rising concern. In media coverage on this story today, our CEO, Dr Andre Oboler, was interviewed by ABC Australia’s The World Today on Radio National, then separately in a live TV interview on ABC News. The radio segment can be heard…
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Responses to Holocaust Memorial Day 2021
Each year on January 27th we publish an article for International Holocaust Memorial Day. Then we receive the comments. We document them, moderate them, and ban posters where we feel it is appropriate. Then we share an article about what we removed and why. We end up doing this every year, it is incredibly painful…
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Holocaust denial and extremism
Today is International Holocaust Memorial Day. It is a day when we remember the victims of the Holocaust, and where words of hate can ultimately lead. As the Ontario Court of Appeal in Canada said in 1989, “The Holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers. It began with words, with racial incitement”[1]. This warning…
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Extremism Online: The Automation of White Supremacy
In this briefing we discuss the use of automation to promote White Supremacy on Twitter. This case study shows Twitter’s lack of action on even the most basic automated tools to tackle the abuse of their platform to promote the sort of extremism which has led to multiple deadly terrorist attacks in recent years, as…
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More need to be done to stop extremism
Rising extremism, in Australia and around the world, sees demand for the Online Hate Prevention Institute’s expertise and action skyrocketing. The same factors that led to the deadly violence on Capitol Hill in Washington DC are also present in Australia. Extremism and Politics This briefing is part of our work for a submission to the…
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Moderation Report 7 Jan 2021
Our brief report on events in Washington DC today received a significant number of comments on Facebook. A number of them tried to promote conspiracy theories, engaged in trolling or otherwise drew out attention for further investigation. In the interest of transparency this report highlights why we banned a number of these accounts from our…