Hate speech against Muslims online is common, says a Sydney-based Institute

The strong effect of the Ashish Kaul scandal has yet to die down and now comes this: the Sydney-based Online Hate Prevention Institute (OHPI) has noted that “hate speech against Muslims” is one of the most common abuse on social media across the world.

OHPI which focuses on issues such as cyber-racism, online religious vilification and other group-based forms of online hate, has also identified other forms of common global online hate as cyberbullying, misogyny, trolling and racism. 

   

According to a report on “online hate against Muslims,” OHPI has described “anti-Muslim hate” as religious vilification targeting Muslims.

“OHPI counters such vilification, which incites hatred and violence against Muslims in violation of their human rights. OHPI uses the term anti-Muslim hate to describe religious vilification targeting Muslims,” say the report. OHPI also counters such vilification, which incites hatred and violence against Muslims in violation of their human rights, the report has stated.

Set-up in 2012 as a dedicated institute for addressing online hate, OHPI’s report on “online hate against Muslims” is based on 1,100 items of anti-Muslim hate in social media. “The vast majority of the hate this report was found on social networking website Facebook,” says the report. In another of its surveys titled “Islamophobia on the Internet: The growth of online hate targeting Muslims”, OHPI has examined 50 “anti-Muslim pages” from which it documented 349 images of “anti-Muslim hate”, says the official website of OHPI.

According to OHPI, it has played an important role in removing several “anti-Muslim pages” on Facebook and many such blasphemous videos on Youtube. In its endeavour to address the menace of online abuse across the world, OHPI has kick-started “Fight Against Hate” project which according to the official website of the institute is “aimed to bring greater transparency to the way social media companies respond when users report hate speech to them,”.

“Fight against hate aims to empower the public, inform decision makers, and hold social media companies accountable for responding to breaches of their terms of service or when community standards fall below what the public expect,” says OHPI website. The institute urges social media users, NGO’s, researchers, government and law enforcement agencies, media and bloggers to report online hate crimes which they come across on various social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Google + etc.

On the homepage of its official website, OHPI also provides a demonstration of how social media users can report an abusive online video, comment, post or image to the institute.

“OHPI’s aim is to get technology companies and governments to recognize and take action against hate speech,” says the OHPI website.

OHPI also provides social media users’ tips on how to remain safe on the Internet and avoid becoming a victim of online hate. ” We have also created step-by-step guides on how to report hateful content if you encounter it. Reporting such content to the platform holders is the first step towards getting it removed. The more reports they receive of hateful content, the more pressured they feel to remove it, so never shy away from reporting hate, as you never know when you might become the target of it,” says OHPI website.

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