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It’s time Facebook repents
Originally published as: Andre Oboler, “It’s Time Facebook Repents“, Jerusalem Post, October 3, 2014. On the morning of Rosh Hashannah a petition signed by 10,306 people arrived at Facebook Headquarters asking the company to change their policy on Holocaust denial. Facebook’s current position on Holocaust denial is that “the mere statement of denying the Holocaust…
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Squadron 88 Returns
A small group of neo-Nazis, calling themselves “Squadron 88”, have again spread racist fliers through people’s mailboxes in Sydney. One set of fliers is similar in style to fliers a month ago, but this time targets “non white migrants”, the other is a new fancier antisemitic flier. The fliers from “Squadron 88” have made local and…
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Online hate to be countered
JWire reports on the Australian Government’s new measures and legislation to deal with online hate. They talk to our CEO, Andre Oboler, about the work that the Online Hate Prevention Institute does to prevent online hate. Oboler talks about our relationship with major platforms like Facebook, and the need for funding in order to effectively…
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Aboriginal Memes still doing the rounds on Facebook
Last month, OHPI registered a big win when after 5 months of campaigning Facebook finally closed an Aboriginal Memes page permanently. It took numerous reports by OHPI and its supporters, and an article in The Age to get the company to follow its own community standards. The page “Aboriginal Humour” (ID # 327442417394528) was created…
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Online Pressure of War
August 10, 2014: Andre Oboler, Online Pressure for War, Jerusalem Post, http://www.jpost.com/Blogs/Internet-Engagement/Online-pressure-for-war-372898 In my previous article I discussed social media’s role in spreading anti-Semitism as a tool of war. I discussed the manipulation that was leading to anti-racism activists defending growing antisemitism rather than challenging it. This article looks at another danger, the use of social media…
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A brief guide to Reporting Antisemitism on Facebook
As part of our efforts to combat the rising tide of online antisemitism, the Online Hate Prevention Institute has made a version of our reporting guide for Facebook freely available. This guide takes users through the new reporting process for pages, images, posts and comments. At OHPI we are also working on an expanded version…
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Calls to Kill on Facebook
UPDATE (5 August 2014): In the early hours of August 5th (Melbourne time), after this report went viral with over 1000 shares, this hate was finally removed by Facebook. Thank you to everyone for your support and your help reporting this page. Together we made a difference. Hadar Goldin, a 23 year old Second Lieutenant…
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60 Minutes Unholy War
At around 8pm on Saturday night, Channel Nine’s 60 minutes Australia program posted an announcement on their Facebook page about tomorrow’s program (see it at the bottom of this briefing). The announcement claims “#60Mins brings you both sides from the Israeli Gaza war zone”. Within a few hours of the announcement there had been over 250 comments…
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Facebook Caught in Social Media War
The Jerusalem Post reports on Facebook’s issues with online hatred. They cite the Online Hate Prevention Institute’s work campaigning for Facebook to ban holocaust denial on the platform.
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Hate, Humour and Social Media
Humour can be a powerful tool. It can break down barriers and allow the inappropriate or impolite to be said. Through humour deep fear can be broached and established power structures challenged. Humour, however, can also be used to enforce existing power structures, to humiliate, and to exclude. In social media the power of humour…