The Online Hate Prevention Institute turns 8 today. As we celebrate these 8 years of impact, reducing the risk from online hate and extremism, we are also pleased to announce our plans for the future.
Since we were founded in January 2012 the volume of online hate has risen year on year. It has increasingly been used to incite real world violence including major terrorist incidents. Our efforts have raised public awareness of the problem and slowed this growth. They have also directly led to changes to technology platforms and policies by major social media companies, as well as new laws and approaches by governments and international organisations. Our work, with your support, has also directly led to online platforms removing thousands of items of online hate and incitement to violence.
Some of our contributions include:
- Helping those who have been targeted – both individuals & communities
- Publishing briefings and reports that led to the removal of online hate and extremist content
- Developing cutting edge reporting and analysis tools
- Representing Australia internationally in efforts to tackle hate and extremism
- Providing intelligence, policy recommendations and research to support the efforts of governments at state and federal level
- Providing recommendations that have been adopted by major technology platforms to reduce the risk of harm from hate and extremism
- Supporting other charities in their initiatives of tackling hate and promoting community cohesion
- Developing and run education and training programs to tackle online hate
Our new strategy for 2020 will include a series of month-long campaigns each focused on a different area of online hate. Alongside these focused campaigns we will continue to work on many different issues at any given time, as well as responding to major incidents as and when they arise. The focused campaigns, however, will allow greater forward planning, more opportunities for volunteer engagement and a stronger focus on partnerships with a wide range of other organisations. Our new slogan, “Empowering communities, organisations and agencies in the fight against hate”, reflects this new approach.
We are also pleased to announce our monthly campaigns for 2020. This will enable supporters to start volunteering and building up the resources needed to take each campaign to the next level. We’ll also begin publishing articles from our 8th anniversary book which reflects on milestones and achievements of the last 8 years. Whether you have been with us from the start, or have only just heard of us today, thank you for your support of our efforts to tackle online hate and extremism. A special thanks to our donors over the years. As a small charity, it is only thanks to the generous support of the public that our work has been possible.
Three things you can do to help us on our 8th birthday:
1. Make a donation to support our future work at https://ohpi.org.au/donate/
2. Add yourself to our mailing list at http://eepurl.com/E6C0L
3. Subscribe to our Facebook page at https://facebook.com/onlinehate
Add your birthday wishes and comments on our anniversary Facebook post