Recently, we have seen a rise in the number of reports on hate against people with disabilities to our online hate reporting tool FightAgainstHate.com. This is a disturbing trend. Disabled people, many of whom suffer from cognitive disabilities, are among the most vulnerable people in our society, and least capable of defending themselves against online hate campaigns.

The genesis of this hate is often in the benefits and concessions given to disabled people by the State, which leads to accusations of disabled people being lazy, unwilling to work and/or faking their disability. However, the stereotype is based more on anecdotal evidence than any hard investigation or data. On the other hand, by aiming to end the meagre benefits and concessions given to them, it could have very real and negative consequences for people who are already struggling to lead normal lives.

Often such hate against targets military veterans and ex-servicemen, who are disabled during military operations or suffer from trauma, as the State takes particular responsibility of them.

In this briefing, we share some recent Tweets reported to FightAgainstHate.com that target the seniors, military veterans and their widows, and accident victims. We also share instructions on how to report the Tweets to Twitter and FightAgainstHate.com.

Example 1

You can view and report the Tweet here.

Example 2

You can view this status here

Example 3

You can view this status here

Example 4

You can view this status here

Please report this hate to Twitter.

• For instructions on how to report a Twitter user go here
• For instructions on reporting a Twitter status go here

Please also report it to OHPI’s online reporting tool Fight Against Hate here. While these Tweets have already been reported to FightAgainstHate.com, by reporting it again, we can keep track of how many times the Tweet was reported to the platform before it was removed. This is valuable data which can be used to pressure companies to pull their socks up with respect to removing hate from their platforms.

Please help us spread the work by sharing this briefing.

You can view all the work we have done to fight Hate against Military Veterans and Ex-Servicemen here. Your support via our Facebook page will help in our work to combat all forms of online hate. You can also stay informed about our work by joining our mailing list for a monthly summary of our activities.