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Where do trolls come from and how do we stop their cyberbullying?
The Online Hate Prevention Institute has been fielding a number of media questions about online trolling and abuse in recent days. We’ve discussed the issue on radio this week with 3AW’s Tom Elliott and K-Rock’s Hunter McLeod. There are number of types of online trolling we deal with at the Online Hate Prevention Institute and…
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Cyberbullying: Not just a teen phenomenon
Recently, the government enacted the “Online Safety of Children’s Act”. However, a recent article in the Women’s Weekly exposes how vulnerable even adults are to cyberbullying. Women, in particular, are vulnerable to harassment that is sexual in nature (revenge porn, malicious impersonation, sexual threats and more). The article shares some excellent tips on online safety…
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Bigots target OHPI
The page “Left Wing Bigots and Extremists exposed” (460474917459804) says its purpose is to “expose the violent left wing bigots and people that support them”. The page is used to coordinate raids on anti-racism Facebook pages and groups as well as on government endorsed charities working in this space. An hour ago the Online Hate Prevention…
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Online Vigilantism and its perils
A recent article in The Age discusses how an Australian working in Bangkok was wrongly identified as the Bangkok Bomber on social media after the CCTV footage of the terrorist was publicly released. The online vigilantes posted the immigration papers and the local address of Sunny Burns on social media identifying him as the man…
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Cyberbullying: Tips and tools to tackle it
Here’s an emotional account by the father of a Melbourne teenager who committed suicide last year after being relentlessly cyberbullied. A few things that he said resonated with us: Why asking teenagers to not use electronic devices does not address the problem. “It’s like a woman saying, ‘I want to dress in a certain way’ and people…
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Steps taken by Twitter to combat abuse
Since early this year, Twitter has been on a mission to finally tackle the horrendous abuse and harassment that the platform has become infamous for. Ever since its CEO admitted in a leaked memo that the company “sucks” at dealing with abuse, it has made a slew of changes in the way the platform operates…
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Some Q&A with OHPI
A few comments on our Facebook page have required an extended response from us. This briefing shares some of what we have posted, and some messages we feel are important. Third party content on the OHPI Facebook page We regularly post links to articles in the media, or statements by other bodies or Government, related…
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Parents’ Congress to tackle the issue of cyberbullying
OHPI has taken a lead role in fighting cyberbullying, particularly among children. In 2012, we actively participated in the Coalition’s Review of Online Safety for Children. Some of our recommendations were eventually included in the Enhanced Online Safety for Children Bill that will come up for consideration before the Senate next month. The submission can…
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Bike rage and the aggressive cyclist lobby
Over the last few days the OHPI Facebook page has received a number of comments relating to what is called “bike rage”. These comments come from an organised group of people who are trying to raise issues related to the rights of cyclists to use the roads. There has been significant commentary in the past…
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Hate among friends
Most of the online hate OHPI reports on is public content. The reason for this is that public content is able to go viral and can usually do far more harm than content shared between people privately or only between friends. It is because of the greater risk from public content that OHPI usually focuses…