Publications
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Promoting Dylann Roof’s Extremism on Facebook
Update (22 June 2015) After rejecting initial reports, then reviewing it and rejecting the reports again, a second review has seen Facebook finally take down the Dylann Roof hate page. Thank you to everyone who reported and who shared this briefing, together we made a difference. Statement from Dr Andre Oboler, CEO of the Online…
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Why Facebook is Awesome
Late last night the Online Hate Prevention Institute published a new briefing highlighting how some people were abusing reporting systems to attack those speaking out against hate. In our briefing we highlight how false reports of nudity were seeing anti-hate content taken down and the accounts of those challenging the hate suspended. The reports were not…
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Facebook Fails to Protect Free Speech Against Hate
Social media companies claim the best response to hate speech is more speech. The use of counter speech is an important tool in combating all forms of online hate, but it comes with some unavoidable limitations. In addition to these limitations, we are now seeing a systemic failure at Facebook which is resulting in counter…
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Restore Australia’s cyberbullying of Mariam Veiszadeh
Maraim Veiszadeh is vocal advocate of the rights of the Muslim community in Australia. She is the founder of Islamophobia Register, which allows members of the Muslim community to report real life hate incidents they encounter. She is well recognized within the legal community of Australia, and was invited to speak at a recent conference…
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Online rants and free speech
Last week, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Facebook rants of a particular man did not amount to criminal threats – reversing the judgement of lower courts. The man in question had made a series of violent threats against his wife (with whom he was undergoing a separation) and others, often using the lyrics…
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Report “Rape Joke” Facebook group
Update 16 June 2015 We’re disappointed, and fankly a little shocked, to see that on review Facebook have again rejected our report of the group “Its Not Rape If You Holler Surprise”. The group made by secondary school children 5 years ago is inactive, but sends a negative message which still shows up on Facebook…
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Learn about online hate
Definition of Hate Speech Hate speech is “speech or expression which is capable of instilling or inciting hatred of, or prejudice towards, a person or group of people on a specified grounds” [1]. It has also been described as speech which destroys a targeted person or groups ‘assurance that there will be no need to…
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How to Report a Google+ Comment
You must be logged into a Google account to report any items. Step 1 Move the cursor over the comment to reveal a flag at the top right of the comment Moving the cursor over the flag will show a tooltip: Report spam or abuse Click the flag to report the comment Step 2 The…
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Prof. Wistrich on Antisemitism in 2015
Prof Robert Wistrich, one of the world’s leading experts on antisemitism and the Head of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, died of a heart attack on May 19 2015. He died in Rome on a trip to address the Italian Senate on the rise of antisemitism in Europe. A few…
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How to Report a Google+ Post
You must be logged into a Google account to report any items. Step 1 Move the cursor over the post to reveal a chevron (v shape) at the top right of the post. Click the chevron to reveal the post options, then click Report this post Step 2 Specify what you are reporting, in this…