Publications
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Building SMARTER Communities of Resistance and Solidarity
We’re changing the game on cyber-racism. A journal article published today in “Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal” by our CEO, Dr Andre Oboler, and Karen Connelly introduces the new version of OHPI’s reporting tool and the broader picture of how it can integrate and empower both individuals and organisations across the community. The journal…
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Antisemitic responses in July 2018
The following are some examples of the antisemitic comments posted to the OHPI Facebook page in response to our coverage of Facebook’s refusal to remove Holocaust denial. The relates Facebook threads are here, here, here and here. Far-Right antisemitism This post and its reply are the kind of content mostly found on 4Chan’s /pol/ and…
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Facebook under fire over Holocaust denial
Facebook is under fire for its position that Holocaust denial is acceptable content on the platform. OHPI’s CEO,Dr Andre Oboler, was interviewed live on Radio Sputnik in Moscow where he explained that Facebook’s position is about a decade old, what’s changed is that the world is no longer willing to accept it. Listen to the interview:…
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Australia Day, African Youth and the Far Right
The Voice of Australia is a page that describes itself as “against animal cruelty – particularly Halal Ritual Slaughter & the Islamisation of Australia”. It’s grown by 1% to 26,343 likes over the last three weeks. The page has been posting defensive messages attacking the idea it is related to racism or terrorism, while at the same…
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The Far Right on African Youth
Far Right groups have jumped on the bank wagon of anti-African sentiment. Some are expressing it as anti-refugee sentiment, other as pure racism against people with dark skin, while a third group seek to present it as another version of “Muslim extremism”. Here’s a few examples of what we’ve seen: Case 1: Racism The Reclaim…
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Tackling Hate on Twitter – Civil Society and the Bots
Last year we received a suspicious tweet directed to us, followed by one from another account warning us the first account was a troll. That was how we met Impostor Buster, the author of the second account. Impostor Buster was not a person, but an automated piece of software designed by a software developer on one…
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Car Attack in Flinders Street Melbourne
On December 21st 2017 a car deliberately drove through pedestrians outside Flinders Street Station in Melbourne. 19 people were injured and one later died in hospital. The driver was known to police and had a history of mental health issues and drug abuse. An Australian citizen of Afghan background, he had come to Australia as…
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Twitter getting tougher on hate
On the advice of its Trust and Safety Council, Twitter has expanded its understanding of prohibited hate. For the first time Twitter will consider content on users profiles not just their tweets. This means hate speech found in account names, description and profile images will now be considered. The change appears to be an extension…
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Undermining democracy in Australia
An advertisement on Facebook showed the worse of American politics being brought to Australia. This is the politics of division and hate being promotes above the competition of ideas election are supposed to settle. In Australia federal elections are an opportunity for candidates, both individually and collectively through political parties, to put forwards their ideas…
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Far Right Harassment of Senator Sam Dastyari
The harassment of Senator Sam Dastyari yesterday, videoed by the perpetrators, was horrible but not surprising. The reason, however, is not what you may think. In the abusive incident the Senator, who was trying to order a beer in a pub, was called a Monkey and a Terrorist. These comments were made because of his…