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Twitter Fails to Confront Vicious anti-Semites, Jewish Journalists Say
Haaretz reports on New York Times editor Jonathan Weisman quitting Twitter after the company refused to take down anti-Semitic tweets. The cite the Online Hate Prevention Institute’s report that 22 only percent of anti-Semitic tweets we analyzed had been removed over a 10-month period. For Facebook, the number was 37 percent, for YouTube 8 percent.…
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Responses to the EU agreement
Yesterday’s briefing on the agreement between the European Commission and Facebook, YouTube, Microsoft and Twitter on improvements to handling hate speech received a strong positive reaction, almost 300 likes and shares, but also a backlash in the comments from people arguing this was impinging on their free speech. That argument mostly comes from bigots who…
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European Union agreement with Social Media Platforms on tackling Hate Speech
The Online Hate Prevention Institute welcomes the news that the European Union has just reach agreement on a code of conduct to tackle hate speech with the largest social media platforms providers: Facebook, Microsoft, YouTube and Twitter. Under the agreement the platforms will “quickly and efficiently” tackle illegal hate speech relating to race, color, religion,…
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National Contexts for hate speech
“There’s not a place for this kind of content on Facebook. Learning more about German culture and law has led us to change the approach” – Mark Zuckerberg speaking in Berlin 27, February 2016 on anti-Immigrant content. (BBC) This confirms what we have reported previously about a new push towards national approaches to hate speech which…
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PRESS RELEASE: Twitter’s culture may be fatal
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The Online Hate Prevention Institute (OHPI) is concerned that despite a significant improvement in public relations, there are fundamental underlying problems at Twitter when it comes to the challenge of dealing with hateful and dangerous content. OHPI will continue our open and frank discussions with Twitter on how this issue can be…
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Report Misogyny & Abuse on Twitter
Win! This account has since been suspended. Thanks to all who reported this account. This briefing highlights a misogynistic and abusive Twitter account. The Twitter account holder is directing highly abusive and misogynistic tweets at other women on Twitter, particularly those who identify as feminists. His tweets also speak of people with disabilities in an…
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PRESS RELEASE: Improvements at Twitter
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The Online Hate Prevention Institute is please to welcome changes announced by Twitter which will help reduce online hate. In the last three years there has been a 4800 per cent increase in racial slurs on Twitter with overall hate rising rapidly across social media in 2015. We were pleased to meet with…
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BBC reflects with OHPI on rising online hate in 2015
Mike Wendling from the BBC has written an excellent reflection on the rising levels of online hate in 2015. The Online Hate prevention Institute is pleased our CEO, Dr Andre Oboler, was extensively interviewed for this piece. Dr Oboler spoke to the BBC about the rise during the year in anti-Muslim hate, antisemitism and misogyny and…
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Drastic Action on Online Hate
This article was originally published as: Andre Oboler, “Social media in Germany combating hateful speech“, J-Wire, 28 December 2015 At one time Germany was the origin of racist hate speech which spread across the globe. Not just speech, but speech which turned into action and fed the flames. It’s no coincidence that today the Federal…
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Regulation of Online Hate Speech goes National
Facebook, Twitter, and Google have reached agreement with the German Government over the appropriate response to tackle hate speech. The response is deletion, and the time frame is 24 hours from when it is reported. This is not a good will gesture from the companies, but like other major improvements in tackling hate speech, it…