On August 4, Dr Oboler will discuss the significant impact online hate has on individuals and in shaping the values of society in a talk for the Raoul Wallenberg Unit of B’nai B’rith. The unit is named for Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who rescued nearly 100,000 Jews from Nazi-occupied Hungary. In 2013 Raoul Wallenberg became Australia’s first Honorary Citizen. We’re honoured that our first talk to B’nai B’rith in Melbourne will be to the Raoul Wallenberg Unit and on the topic both of Holocaust denial and growing intolerance in society today.

The talk will focus particularly on Holocaust denial and trivialisation as well as the rising tide of online anti-Muslim hate here in Australia and around the world. Dr Oboler will discuss the way social media fuel this problem, and the world leading work that is being done here in Melbourne by the Online Hate Prevention Institute to counter this growing crisis. We may be facing difficulty times, but are also making significant progress is meeting these new challenges. The global role we are playing in Australia in the effort to push back against the rising tide of hate and growing acceptability for intolerance is significant.

A series of flyers about OHPI’s work are being created for distribution at the event. Here are the first two: