On Sunday 23rd February, people from various community groups participated in a day-long training program to tackle online hate speech. The program was organised by the Council of Christians and Jews (Victoria) in conjunction with the Online Hate Prevention Institute.

The training day was presented by the Online Hate Prevention Institute’s CEO, Dr Andre Oboler and was designed to assist community representatives to recognise & appropriately respond to online hate and in-turn, commence running short introductory sessions in their own communities.

Training day participants were given information on relevant Australian and Victorian laws, racism in general and online hate against Indigenous Australians, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, anti-Christian hate. The session also looked at online reporting.

The program of “Tackling Hate Speech” aims to create a network of trained people within multiple communities, who can facilitate local action by volunteers in participating churches, synagogues and other groups. It is designed to help local communities to combat the ever-growing problem of online racism, religious vilification and other forms of cyberbullying.