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Racism isn’t funny
Lisa Jane Spencer has been using Instagram to engage in racism against multiple parts of the Australian community while collecting donations to support her “creative work”. It’s not funny. It’s not legal. It needs to stop.
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Coded Racism Online: How Crime Stories Become a Vehicle for Hate
Online hate is not always easy to spot. Sometimes it hides behind slang or words that sound harmless but are deeply hurtful to the people they target. This briefing looks at a pattern of racism aimed at African Australians using terms like “licorice stick” in comments on social media. You often see these words under…
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Division and Disgust: Why Indians Became The Target of Australia’s Online Hate
On the 31st of August, tens of thousands of Australians took to the streets in various Australian cities to oppose immigration in Australia. Official promotional materials for the event singled out one group of immigrants in particular: Indians. Flyers for the events claimed that there have been “more Indians in 5 years, than Greeks and…
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Conflation doesn’t help
There are real issues related to hate in Australia, but conflation doesn’t help. A July 31 2025 press statement from Islamophobia Register highlights real issues of Islamophobia and racism in Australian society, but also conflates these with things that may not be Islamophobia or racism.
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Fighting Talk: Online Hate-Speech in Mixed Martial Arts
In my spare time I do a martial art called Jiu Jitsu. Jiu Jitsu is a kind of grappling which was propelled into notoriety when Royce Gracie won the first ever Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 1993. The UFC was established to determine which martial art was most effective, and when Royce Gracie won UFC…
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Rebuilding the Reich – A briefing on hate and extremism in Roblox
Hate has had a presence on the internet almost since its inception. In 1983, the same year the internet is widely regarded to have begun, one of the first computer bulletin board systems was created by the neo-Nazi George Dietz. It was a space to share anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denial, and other racist documents, reaching wide popularity…
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Anti “Woke” Discourse and Online Hate Speech
Woke – it’s a word that we can’t seem to escape. The comments section on news websites are littered with people being accused of “woke” behaviour for having a progressive view, or even just one that isn’t shared by the mainstream. It’s not just individuals who are considered woke – organisations and businesses are targeted…
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Hate-Speech and Reporting Systems in Online Multiplayer Games
Much of OHPI’s recent work has been focussed on online hate on social media, but hate speech is also a prevalent issue in online multiplayer gaming. It is therefore important that these games have robust reporting mechanisms that can be utilised by users who encounter hate. The effectiveness of reporting systems in games can vary.…
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Current developments of anti-Muslim hate online
In this briefing we deconstruct recent examples our analysts have found of anti-Muslim hate on social media.
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White Supremacy on X
X (formerly Twitter) is known to have long-standing issues with hate speech. We take a closer look at White Supremacy on the platform.