Who We Are

Our intention is to inform people of racist, homophobic, religious extreme hate speech perpetrators across social networking internet sites. And we also aim to be a focal point for people to access information and resources to report such perpetrators to appropriate web sites, governmental departments and law enforcement agencies around the world.

We will also post relevant news worthy items and information on Human rights issues, racism, extremist individuals and groups and far right political parties from around the world although predominantly Britain.

Thursday 12 August 2010

Facebook vows new security measures to combat alarming 'trolling' abuse trend

Facebook, the social networking site, has pledged to develop new security measures to combat a growing surge in cyber bullying and abuse of strangers.

Engineers at Facebook are reportedly working on new systems to fight the trend of “trolling”, where  anonymous online users “bombard” victims with offensive messages or abuse.

Reports have claimed a growing number of “tribute” pages had been targeted including those in memory of the Cumbria shootings victims and soldiers who died in Afghanistan
In other extreme cases such abuse has led to some teenagers committing suicide.

At present users can only manually delete abusive messages. But in efforts to combat the growing trend, Facebook officials said they were working on new systems that automatically delete abuse.

Administrators of such sites will also be given new advice on how to cope with “trolls” and be given access to the new tools.

It comes just weeks after the announcement that children using Facebook could now report bullying and suspicious behaviour directly to the authorities after the launch of a new application.

Officials figures from Ofcom show that children as young as eight were using Facebook despite age restrictions.

Jim Gamble, the chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), who has been working with Facebook to combat cyber bullying, welcomed the news.

Mr Gamble, Britain's most senior official responsible for protecting youngsters online, said the “ClickCEOP” application on Facebook had been downloaded more than 10,000 times since the button's launch last month.

The application gives users a direct link to advice, help and the ability to report cyber problems to the centre.

“We're working with Facebook. They are a good partner and we're going to get closer and closer to them,” he told ITV News.

“But in the longer term, we want the Click CEOP button to be a default. So you don't have to be sensible to realise you need it there, that you don't need to be a motivated parent to be reassured that your child is best protected.”

Mr Gamble has openly criticised Facebook, recently for not following the example of similar sites such as Bebo and failing to introduce the panic button on each user's profile page.

He has warned that officers had seen a significant increase in complaints from parents and children reporting alleged paedophiles, bullies and hackers who were exploiting the site.

A Facebook spokesman said that while the company already employed “robust” systems, engineers were developing new programmes to combat the threat.

“Because ‘trolls’ tend to set up fake accounts, we employ robust systems to flag and block them based on name and anomalous site activity,” he said.

“Users who send lots of messages to non-friends, for example, or whose friend requests are rejected at a high rate, are marked as suspect.

“We’ve built extensive grey lists that prevent users from signing up with names commonly associated with fake accounts.”

He added: “Through the reporting process our team is also able to identify additional accounts using the same IP address so it is possible in certain situations to proactively remove multiple fake accounts.

“There’s always room for improvement, which is why we have a team of security experts and site integrity engineers working on these systems and developing new ones.”

The Telegraph

Last Laugh Is on German Far Right in Court Case (Germany)

Germany’s far-right supporters lost a major court case on Wednesday after a judge ruled that a satirical anti-racist clothing label depicting a stork that looks like Hitler was not damaging to a clothing label much favored by neo-Nazis.

The case pitted Storch Heinar, the anti-racist and anti-fascist label, against Thor Steinar, the cult label for far rightist movements here. The ruling, in Nuremberg, is seen as a victory a left-leaning youth group, Endstation Rechts, whose name translates as “last stop for the right wing.”

Set up by a group of Social Democrats in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 2008 to combat growing rightist extremism there and also in the state of Saxony, Endstation Rechts hit on the idea of starting its own clothing label aimed at satirizing the far-right political parties.

The youth group’s label, Storch Heinar (Storch is the German word for stork), has as its emblem an awkward and scrawny stork, which has become a symbol for a growing movement that is trying to oppose the influence of far-right parties, such as the National Party of Germany, or N.P.D., and neo-Nazi movements.

The N.P.D. is represented in the state governments of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as well as Saxony.

From the beginning, Storch Heinar was turned into a cartoon character that satirizes Hitler. It has a Hitler-esque mustache and wears an oversized military helmet. Satirizing Hitler’s own life, the stork has an unhappy childhood, is not recognized as an artist, has a very big superiority complex and above all has ambitions to be the greatest fashion designer of all times.

Such humor did not go down at all with Mediatex, the company that owns Thor Steinar. The label won wide appeal among far-right supporters in Germany because of its emphasis on Nordic mythology, which the Nazis used to propagate their philosophy of racial purity.

Mediatex at first tried to take over the trademark of Storch Heinar and copyright the avian name. But it failed.
Then this year, Mediatex filed a complaint against Mathias Brodkorb, a Social Democrat legislator in the state Parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and one of the founders of Storch Heinar. Mediatex alleged that Storch Heinar was injuring and disparaging Thor Steinar. The case went to court last month.

In his ruling, Judge Horst Rottmann said Wednesday that there was no danger that the two labels could be confused, so the danger of Thor Steinar losing potential customers was not an issue. As for denigrating or disparaging Thor Steinar, Mr. Rottmann said satire, as artistic expression and freedom, was protected under the country’s freedom of speech laws.

NY Times

UN watchdog criticises France for resurgence of racism

France is experiencing "a significant resurgence of racism" and lacked the political will to fix the problem, experts from the UN's anti-discrimination watchdog said Wednesday.

The criticism came as a panel of 18 experts from the UN's Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination presented a 90-page report on racism in France, the first since 2005.

After the session, the French delegation unexpectedly announced the preparation of a national action plan against racism.

Despite numerous legal instruments, France was facing "a notable resurgence in racism and xenophobia", Togolese expert Ewomsan Kokou said.

According to U.S. inspector Pierre-Richard Prosper, the resurgence was due to "the absence of true political will".

The debate covered treatment of traveller communities and the Roma, the debate on national identity, the non-recognition of the rights of minorities and the hardening of political discourse.

The situation of travelling communities and immigrants is a hot-button issue in France, following a threatened crackdown by President Nicolas Sarkozy in the wake of recent violence.

Sarkozy's threat to strip foreign-born nationals of French citizenship if they committed crimes came in for particular criticism.

"I don't know what a 'French person of foreign origin' is," said Gun Kut, a Turkish inspector. "I ask if this is compatible with the constitution."

The panel would wait for responses from the French delegation in a session Thursday before drawing up their recommendations.

"France has been placed on the grill," said Malik Salemkour, from the League of Human Rights.

Vancover Sun