The Online Hate Prevention Institute (OHPI) is leading a research project into anti-Asian hate in partnership with the Australian Human Rights Commission and Meta’s Australian Office. The principal researcher in this work is Dr Andre Oboler, CEO of the Online Hate Prevention Institute (contact: ceo@ohpi.org.au).
This page contains three parts:
- A simple English information statement about this research
- A consent form
- A survey for you to complete
To participate, please read the statement and consent form, then complete the survey. Participation will take about 15 minutes. Details for accessing the consultation will be emailed to separately to those invited to participate.
Your participation in this research is voluntary. There is no reward or payment for participating. If you don’t wish to take part, you don’t have to. If you begin participating, you can also stop at any time. If you are likely to be distressed by participating, please do not participate. If you become distressed, please stop participating.
Information Statement
What is this research about?
This research is to investigate anti-Asian hate. Our focus is anti-Asian hate online, and particularly on Facebook and Instagram. We are also asking about other experiences of anti-Asian hate, both online and offline, to provide greater context.
The research involves three elements:
- Collection of online data by OHPI staff and through public reporting
- An online consultation with representatives from community organisations
- A survey that will be completed by the representatives of community organisations, and by others they invite from within their communities
What will I be asked to do?
Those who agree to participate will complete an anonymous online survey. Submitting the survey indicates your informed agreement to the consent statement. Participants must be at least 18 years old.
The survey will discuss your use of various online services, your observations of anti-Asian racism in these services (what platforms they occur in, how often they are seen) and how often and in what settings anti-Asian hate has been observed in various real world settings. Feedback will also be sought on a scheme for classifying various types of anti-Asian hate.
In the consultation, participants will be divided into small groups. These groups will discuss the survey questions then will look at and discuss a series of examples of online content and whether the examples are anti-Asian hate, how they would be classified using the schema, and whether the group feels the content should be removed by the platform.
The small groups will be run by the participants and the research partners will not participate or observe the discussion. There will be no audio or video recording. Participants will be asked to anonymously record the key points of their discussion in a shared online document.
What are the benefits and risks?
The benefit of participating is that you can help us better understand the problem of anti-Asian hate in Australia. The partners in this project all actively work on this problem and a better understand will help us better respond to the challenge of anti-Asian hate online. This is a unique partnership of civil society, government and industry and your participation can help inform our thinking about the problem.
There are minimal risks associated with your participation in this project. There is a minor risk that reflecting on anti-Asian racism may cause you to experience discomfort, distress, embarrassment, unpleasantness or inconvenience during or after participating. For those participating in the consultation, there is a minor risk that in discussing anti-Asian hate with others you may drift away from the research questions and disclose more than you intended to other participants who can identify you.
All reasonable efforts will be made to ensure that you and your anonymous contributions are not identified or identifiable in publications as part of the anticipated research outputs. You should not disclose the identity of other participants unless explicitly given permission, and you should keep confidential all discussions. All participation is voluntary and you do not have to engage in any discussion that you are not comfortable with.
If you feel upset or distressed by anything discussed during the consultation or as a result of completing the survey, Lifeline provides access to online, phone or face-to-face support, call 13 11 14 for 24-hour telephone crisis support. Participants under the age of 25 can also call the Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800.
How will the data be used?
Aggregate data from the survey will be published in the project report. The anonymous notes will be shared with the research partners and may be analysed and quoted in the report.
A draft of the report will be shared with participants in consultation and an opportunity will be provided for both feedback and brief additional (attributable) statements. Participants in the consultation may share the draft with anyone they invited to complete the survey and collate any feedback on the draft from them.
The report will be freely available from the Online Hate Prevention Institute website once published.
What will happen to information about me?
All survey responses and discussion notes are being collected anonymously. Details of who participated in the consultation will be treated confidentially (i.e. known only to the research partners and other participants who will be in the consultation) unless disclosure is required by law, or we are provided with an attributable statement by a person who reflects on their participation. Details of consultation participants are accessible to the Australian Human Rights Commission who have facilitated to invitations to participate.
Who is funding this project?
This research has been financially supported by Meta (from the US) and the Australian Human Rights Commission and Meta’s Australian Office have made in-kind contributions to support this work.
More information?
Contact Dr Andre Oboler, CEO of the Online Hate Prevention Institute, at ceo@ohpi.org.au
Who can I contact if I have any concerns about the project?
This project has been approved by the Board of Directors of the Online Hate Prevention Institute. Ethics advice has been sought from independent experts. Concerns may be raised through the board by contacting Jo Silver (one of OHPI’s independent directors) at jo@ohpi.org.au.
Consent Form
By submitting the survey you indicate your consent to the following:
- I confirm I am at least 18 years old and I consent to participate in this project, the details of which have been explained to me. I have read the above plain language statement about the research, and printed / saved a copy if I wish to keep it.
- I understand that the purpose of this research is to investigate anti-Asian hate, particularly as it occurs online but also in other settings.
- I understand that my participation in this project is for research purposes only.
- I acknowledge that the possible effects of participating in this research project have been explained to my satisfaction.
- I understand participation involves completing a survey, and if invited, participating in an online consultation.
- I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw from this project anytime without explanation or prejudice. As all data in anonymous, I understand any submitted data can’t be withdrawn as it won’t be possible to identify it.
- I understand that the anonymous data gathered from this research will be stored by the Online Hate Prevention Institute.
- I have been informed that the confidentiality of the information I provide will be safeguarded subject to any legal requirements; my data will be password protected and accessible only by the named researcher. I have been informed that is I participate in the consultation, the Australian Human Rights Commission will have access to the list of participants, and other participants, and staff from the partners in this research will be aware of the fact of my participation, but not my specific contributions to the small group discussions.
- I understand that after I sign and return this consent form, it will be retained by the researcher.