Dealing with online hate
The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission has become the first Australian organisation to join the ADL’s Working Group on Cyberhate which includes YouTube, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Twitter.
Dvir Abramowich
The mandate of the Working group was to come up with recommendations for the most effective responses to manifestations of hate online and to endorse and support the guidelines included in the Best Practices document produced by the ADL.
Dr. Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, issued the following statement:
”We are honoured to be the first Australian organisation to be invited and to join this select and distinguished global group. I applaud and wholeheartedly support the incredibly important work of the ADL in fighting antisemitism and hatred on the internet through the Best Practices document. Like the ADL, the ADC is strongly committed to meaningfully tackling this growing problem head on, and this wonderful initiative is a critical step in promoting an inclusive, safe and respectful environment for all users. As is clear, the internet has become a vital recruiting tool for racists and extremists as well as a vehicle for them to inexpensively and easily disseminate their ugly ideology of incitement and messages of bigotry, conspiracy theories, prejudice, bullying and calls for violence. Being part of this group provides us with tremendous access to the most important stakeholders in the field and will no doubt help us greatly in our fight against antisemitism.”
Deborah M. Lauter, Director, Civil Rights at the Anti-Defamation League said:
“We are delighted to have the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission join us and other industry leaders in supporting the ADL’s Best Practices Initiative. ADC’s support of this initiative is an important example of International participation that shows that other members of the world community share a desire to make the Internet a better place for everyone.”
This is all very well and good but Americans are the largest contributors online – and America has very nearly what amounts to complete freedom of speech. Inciting people to commit violence against others is the only thing thats proscribed under US law – all other speech is protected including hate speech!
Ok Dvir, lets hear it.
In what way EXACTLY is the ADC “meaningfully tackling this problem head on”?
It’s ok, we can wait while you dig up something.
Or better yet ring someone and ask them what reassuring letter to send out to the community next
Talking about how you are fighting antisemitism is NOT the same as ACTUALLY fighting antisemitism,.
Just so you know.
I hope this will apply to FACEBOOK.
Thank You.
MS
One area this Working Group should explore is making it mandatory for anyone posting on the internet to first provide his full name and address and contact phone number to the editor of the web site where such comment is to be posted.
This is a standard requirement for persons writing letters to newspapers before they will be accepted for publication.
Why should it not be a similar requirement for on-line sites?
If web sites choose to ignore this requirement they should be closed down by the service provider.
Vilifying, denigrating, inciting to violence and defaming people under the cover of anonymity needs to be stamped out.
If anyone wants to engage in such practices they should be required to put their real name to those comments.
Well said!! I agree.
Good idea. Although people can make up fake names too.
But not fake addresses and phone numbers which can be verified. If it is good enough for the Herald to demand such information then it should be required for web sites.
In particular if you get the Jew-hating or other racist comments submitted for publication they should be checked out prior to publication.
At the moment everything and anything can get published under the cover of anonymity.
I must commend J Wire which has taken the lead in ending this insidious practice.
You will notice the following condition for publication of comments:
“Comments received without a full name will not be considered
Email addresses are NEVER published!”
We know progress is being made when all web sites stipulate the same condition.
My word you can falsify everything on line by going through a proxy server
People frequently post false addresses on my site and even though they are required to give their name they don’t.
You can only check if you moderate and that is too time consuming and is no good for ease of discussion, as is shown here. If you are commenting you need to do it in real time.