Online Hate Prevention Institute

Online Hate Prevention Institute (OHPI) is an independent harm prevention charity established in 2012 and based in Australia.

Online Hate Prevention Institute
AbbreviationOHPI
Formation23 January 2012 (2012-01-23)
Founded atMelbourne, Australia
TypeCharity
65155287657
Legal statusActive
HeadquartersSydney , Australia
Location
Coordinates
Official language
English
Mark Civitella
Martin Splitter
Dr Nasya Bahfen
Dr David Wishart
Key people
Dr Andre Oboler (CEO)
Websitewww.ohpi.org.au

Overview

OHPI is recognised by the Government of Australia as a Harm Prevention Charity, listed on the Harm Prevention register by the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.[1] OHPI tackles a wide variety of forms of online hate speech. Work on Antisemitism has been undertaken for the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism,[2] while work on Islamophobia has been used by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.[3] The Institute is recommended as a source of specialist information on cyber Racism by the Australian Human Rights Commission,[4] and the eSafety Commissioner.[5]

The harm prevention charity also publishes a range of briefings and reports documenting examples of online hate. During the Coronavirus (COVID-19), OHPI published a special series of reports documenting the slew of hate speech targeting people of Asian descent and misinformation surrounding the origin of the virus.[6]

Notable Events

On 10 July 2014, Andre Oboler accused Facebook of refusing to enforce its community standards by allowing hate speech to remain online, stating that content is removed in the country where the report originated only and is still visible to others when viewed overseas.[7]

After Facebook decided to remove Holocaust denial content in October 2020, Oboler welcomed cautious optimism about the shift of policy on the platform. Oboler called the changes "...certainly very welcome,” to The New Daily, but mentioned the public has to "[wait] to see it delivered on, to make sure the change isn’t just words."[8]

Oboler presented to the Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Hate Speech, Social Media and Minorities on October 20th, 2020. The forum, organised by the Tom Lantos Institute and the United Nations Human Rights Special Rapporteur, sought to address human rights in the greater Asia-Pacific.[9][10] Oboler spoke alongside representatives of Twitter and the Asia Centre.

The Inter-Parliamentary Task Force on Online Antisemitism would also feature Oboler in late 2020, alongside Congresswoman and former Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Member of Parliament Josh Burns, and former Canadian Member of Parliament Michael Levitt, among many others.[11][12] The task force addressed vulnerability of Jewish communities, the nature of online Semitism and recommendations for law makers and social media platforms.

Fight Against Hate

The Online Hate Prevention Institute developed a web based application titled Fight Against Hate to track response times by social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in responding to reports of hate speech.[13]

References
  1. "Mission and Vision". Online Hate Prevention Institute. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  2. "Measuring the Hate: The State of Antisemitism in Social Media" (PDF). Global Forum for Combatting Antisemitism. 2016.
  3. "Report on Islamophobia" (PDF). Organization of Islamic Cooperation. 2014.
  4. "Cyber Racism | Australian Human Rights Commission". humanrights.gov.au. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  5. "Respect". eSafety Commissioner.
  6. "Coronavirus". Online Hate Prevention Institute. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  7. Sharma, Mahesh (10 July 2014). "Facebook accused of allowing hate speech". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  8. "Australian academic wins Facebook victory after a decade-long battle". The New Daily. 13 October 2020. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  9. "OHPI Addresses Asia Pacific Regional Forum". Online Hate Prevention Institute. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  10. "Asia-Pacific Regional Forum on Minority Issues 2020". tom-lantos-institue.events.idloom.com. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  11. "International task force discuss online antisemitism". J-Wire. 11 November 2020. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  12. "In Germany, antisemitism on social media can be linked to offline violence". openDemocracy. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  13. Butler, Josh (22 September 2016). "It's Actually Illegal To Be Racist On The Internet". Huffington Post. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.