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The '''Center for Countering Digital Hate''' ('''CCDH''') is a [[limited company]] with offices in [[London]] and [[Washington DC|Washington, DC]].<ref name="About Us"/> It was founded in December 2017<ref>{{Cite web|title=CCDH: Center for Countering Digital Hate {{!}} Policy Commons|url=https://policycommons.net/orgs/center-countering-digital-hate/|access-date=2021-06-09|website=policycommons.net}}</ref> by its [[Chief executive officer|CEO]], Imran Ahmed,<ref name="Our People" /> although the company was not [[Incorporation (business)|incorporated]] until October 2018.<ref name="companies">{{cite web |url=https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/11633127/|title=Center For Countering Digital Hate Ltd|work=Companies House|date=10 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200410094741/https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/11633127/|archive-date=10 April 2020}}</ref>
The '''Center for Countering Digital Hate''' ('''CCDH''') is a [[limited company]] with offices in [[London]] and [[Washington DC|Washington, DC]].<ref name="About Us"/> It was founded in December 2017<ref>{{Cite web|title=CCDH: Center for Countering Digital Hate {{!}} Policy Commons|url=https://policycommons.net/orgs/center-countering-digital-hate/|access-date=2021-06-09|website=policycommons.net}}</ref> by its [[Chief executive officer|CEO]], Imran Ahmed,<ref name="Our People" /> although the company was not [[Incorporation (business)|incorporated]] until October 2018.<ref name="companies">{{cite web |url=https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/11633127/|title=Center For Countering Digital Hate Ltd|work=Companies House|date=10 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200410094741/https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/11633127/|archive-date=10 April 2020}}</ref>


The organisation says that that "[[big tech]]" firms such as [[YouTube]], [[Facebook]], [[Amazon.com|Amazon]], [[Twitter]], [[Instagram]], and [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] should stop providing services to individuals who they say [[Hate speech|promote hate]] and [[misinformation]], including [[Neo-Nazism|neo-Nazis]] and [[Vaccine hesitancy|anti-vaccine advocates]].
The company says that that "[[big tech]]" firms such as [[YouTube]], [[Facebook]], [[Amazon.com|Amazon]], [[Twitter]], [[Instagram]], and [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] should stop providing services to individuals who they say [[Hate speech|promote hate]] and [[misinformation]], including [[Neo-Nazism|neo-Nazis]] and [[Vaccine hesitancy|anti-vaccine advocates]].


The organisation is a member of the [[Stop Hate For Profit]] coalition.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Frazer|first=Jenni|title='The reason social media companies tolerate hate? Profit'|url=https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/meet-the-man-trying-to-drive-antisemitism-offline/|access-date=2020-12-10|website=jewishnews.timesofisrael.com|language=en-US}}</ref> From 4 May 2020, the [[Stop Funding Fake News]] campaign became a project of the CCDH.<ref name=sffn-website>{{cite web |url=https://www.stopfundingfakenews.com/ |title=Stop Funding Fake News |website=Stop Funding Fake News |access-date=24 August 2020}}</ref>
The company is a member of the [[Stop Hate For Profit]] coalition.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Frazer|first=Jenni|title='The reason social media companies tolerate hate? Profit'|url=https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/meet-the-man-trying-to-drive-antisemitism-offline/|access-date=2020-12-10|website=jewishnews.timesofisrael.com|language=en-US}}</ref> From 4 May 2020, the [[Stop Funding Fake News]] campaign became a project of the CCDH.<ref name=sffn-website>{{cite web |url=https://www.stopfundingfakenews.com/ |title=Stop Funding Fake News |website=Stop Funding Fake News |access-date=24 August 2020}}</ref>


==Campaigns==
==Campaigns==

Revision as of 20:49, 15 September 2021

"CCDH" redirects here. For the Moroccan human rights organization, see National Human Rights Council (Morocco).
Center for Countering Digital Hate
AbbreviationCCDH
Formation2017-2018[1][2]
FounderImran Ahmed[1]
Purpose"To disrupt the architecture of online hate and misinformation"[3]
Directors
Tom Brookes
Simon Clark (Chair)
Damian Collins MP
Kirsty McNeill
Siobhan McAndrew
Lord Jonathan Oates
Ayesha Saran[4]
Websitewww.counterhate.co.uk

The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) is a limited company with offices in London and Washington, DC.[3] It was founded in December 2017[5] by its CEO, Imran Ahmed,[1] although the company was not incorporated until October 2018.[2]

The company says that that "big tech" firms such as YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Instagram, and Apple should stop providing services to individuals who they say promote hate and misinformation, including neo-Nazis and anti-vaccine advocates.

The company is a member of the Stop Hate For Profit coalition.[6] From 4 May 2020, the Stop Funding Fake News campaign became a project of the CCDH.[7]

Campaigns

The CCDH has targeted neo-Nazis[8] and anti-vaccine advocates.[9]

Campaign against Galloway and Hopkins

Further information: Twitter suspensions
photograph
Rachel Riley and the CCDH lobbied "big tech" companies to deplatform George Galloway and Katie Hopkins.

In January 2020, the CCDH campaigned against Katie Hopkins, a far-right political commentator, and George Galloway, a veteran left-wing politician and broadcaster who was sacked from his job at Talkradio for posting an allegedly antisemitic tweet.[10] TV presenter Rachel Riley and the CCDH directly lobbyied "big tech" companies to have these individuals removed from major social media platforms. According to media reports Riley and CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed had a "secret meeting" with Twitter's Soho, London based office, demanding the removal of Hopkins and Galloway from their platform.[11]

At the meeting with Twitter representatives on 29 January 2020, Ahmed and Riley stated that their demand was to exclude "hate actors from public discourse". They presented a number of posts by Hopkins and Galloway which they claimed were in breach of Twitter's community guidelines, demanding that they stop their "ability to use the platform to spread hate".[12][13][14] Ultimately, the CCDH's attempt to remove Galloway from Twitter failed, but Hopkins had her account suspended for a week in February 2020,[15] and removed permanently in July 2020.[16]

Campaign against David Icke

photograph
The British conspiracy theorist David Icke, who the CCDH sought to deplatform in 2020

In April 2020 the CCDH launched a campaign against the British conspiracy theorist David Icke, who gained increased media attention during the COVID-19-associated lockdown in the United Kingdom.[17] Icke posted a number of controversial videos to his YouTube account, which included an interview with Brian Rose of London Real where Icke posited a conspiracy theory which attempted to link the erection of 5G masts to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the British lockdown, the CCDH worked to counter COVID-19 misinformation. The CCDH released a 25-page pamphlet attacking Icke entitled #DeplatformIcke[18] and campaigned to persuade social media platforms to remove his accounts, using the hashtag #DeplatformIcke. The CCDH demanded the total removal of Icke's online presence from YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Instagram, and Apple, portraying him as a "hate actor" on their website.

The #DeplatformIcke pamphlet sent out by the CCDH was signed by 800 individuals, and groups,[19] including the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Antisemitism (Andrew Percy and Catherine McKinnell both signed), and Damian Collins, Conservative MP who was the former chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. Antisemitism monitoring organisation, the Community Security Trust (CST), also supported the letter, with CST's Dave Rich calling for Icke's "hateful and dangerous conspiracy theories to be removed from mainstream social media platforms."[17]

Icke, a prolific content creator, had a public audience of more than 1 million followers on YouTube, as well as on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook deleted his account on 1 May 2020, stating as the reason "health misinformation that could cause physical harm";[20] YouTube followed on 2 May 2020 stating: "YouTube has clear policies prohibiting any content that disputes the existence and transmission of Covid-19 as described by the WHO and the NHS."[21] While both of Icke's personal accounts were deleted from the two websites, both allowed other users to upload Icke-related content unrelated to COVID-19. Ahmed and the CCDH praised the ban but continued to demand that a complete removal of all of Icke's internet platforms, and a shadow ban of all his content be enforced.[22][23]

In November 2020, Twitter removed Icke's account for violating the site's rules against spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.[24]

Hatebook

Hatebook is a CCDH report published in November 2020 and co-authored by the Coalition for a Safer Web. It accuses Facebook and Instagram of hosting 61 accounts that were selling neo-Nazi merchandise to fund far-right extremism, which had a total of 112,181 followers.[25] The CCDH accused Facebook of choosing profits over public safety in allowing domestic violent far-right extremists to gain 80,000 followers in the US and UK.[26] Facebook promptly removed most of the identified accounts.[27]

#No2Misinfo Campaign

The CCDH’s #No2Misinfo campaign launched in late October 2020 in order to draw attention to electoral misinformation networks being funded by the Google Ads service. The report uncovered that Google Ads were used to monetize websites intended to spread misinformation about the 2020 US Presidential Election.[28] The Global Disinformation Index identified 145 such sites.[29][30]

The CCDH examined six of these websites, which received over 40 million visits prior to the election. This traffic generated an estimated $5 million in advertising revenue.[28] The CCDH called on Google to stop placing adverts on electoral misinformation websites, releasing an open letter to Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, for supporters to sign.[28][31]

Other actions

The CCDH notified Google that the Zero Hedge website had published what it called "racist articles" about the Black Lives Matter protests. As a result, in June 2020, Google found that reader comments on Zero Hedge breached its policies and banned Zero Hedge from its advertising platform.[32]

Directors

Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate

Imran Ahmed

The organisation was founded by its current CEO, Imran Ahmed, who is also a trustee of Victim Support[33] and sits on the steering committee for the Commission for Countering Extremism's Pilot Task Force.[34] He is critical of social media companies using algorithms to promote dangerous extremist content to millions of users.[35] Before founding the CCDH in 2018, Imran served as a Political Advisor to Shadow Foreign Secretary, Hilary Benn MP in the UK Parliament and as Political Advisor to Alan Johnson MP, leader of the Labour Remain campaign, in the 2016 Brexit referendum.[36][35] Ahmed previously co-authored the book The New Serfdom: The Triumph of Conservative Ideas and How to Defeat Them with Labour MP Angela Eagle.[37] Imran was raised in Manchester, England and holds an MA in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge.[38]

Board of Directors

Morgan James McSweeney, currently chief of staff to the Leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer,[39][better source needed] was the first Director listed on Companies House, appointed in October 2018.[40] McSweeney resigned in April 2020. McSweeney was joined in September 2019, upon the public launch of the center, by three other directors: David Craig Roberts, Siobhan Marie McAndrew,[40] a sociology lecturer at the University of Bristol[41] and Kirsty Jean McNeill,[40] an Executive Director at Save the Children and Board member of the Holocaust Educational Trust and the Coalition for Global Prosperity.[42] More recent directors include Simon Clark (Chair), Tom Brookes, Executive Director, Strategic Communications at the European Climate Foundation,[43] Damian Collins MP, a Conservative Member of Parliament and former Chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, Lord Jonathan Oates, a Liberal Democrat Member of the House of Lords and former chief of staff to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, and Ayesha Saran.[40]

Publications

  • Don't Feed the Trolls: How to Deal with Hate on Social Media (2019) – a 12-page pamphlet on how internet trolls operate
  • The Anti-Vaxx Industry (2020) – criticises social media platforms for the growth of anti-vaccination ('anti-vaxx') activists
  • Will to Act (2020) – argues that the largest social media companies fail to enforce their own rules preventing anti-vaccine and COVID-19 conspiracy theory content
  • Failure to Act (2021) – tracks action taken by social media companies in response to anti-vaccine content
  • The Anti-Vaxx Playbook (2020) claims to provide insight into anti-vaxx tactics, messages, and the use of social media
  • Malgorithm (2021) – a critical analysis of Instagram and Facebook’s user engagement and content recommendation algorithm.
  • The Disinformation Dozen (2021) – identifies the top 12 spreaders of anti-vaccine disinformation on social media platforms
  • Disinformation Dozen: the Sequel (2021) – reports on the failures of social media giants to remove anti-vaccine content

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Our People". Center for Countering Digital Hate. 26 May 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Center For Countering Digital Hate Ltd". Companies House. 10 May 2020. Archived from the original on 10 April 2020.
  3. ^ a b "About Us". The Center for Countering Digital Hate. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  4. ^ "CENTER FOR COUNTERING DIGITAL HATE LTD". Officers (free information from Companies House). 2020-10-09. Retrieved 2020-12-07.
  5. ^ "CCDH: Center for Countering Digital Hate | Policy Commons". policycommons.net. Retrieved 2021-06-09.
  6. ^ Frazer, Jenni. "'The reason social media companies tolerate hate? Profit'". jewishnews.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  7. ^ "Stop Funding Fake News". Stop Funding Fake News. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
  8. ^ "Facebook Still Ignoring Warnings of Neo-Nazi Fundraising Network on Its Platforms, New Report Claims". Algemeiner.com. 2020-11-23. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  9. ^ Burki, Talha (2020-10-01). "The online anti-vaccine movement in the age of COVID-19". The Lancet Digital Health. 2 (10): e504–e505. doi:10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30227-2. ISSN 2589-7500. PMC 7508526. PMID 32984795.
  10. ^ "George Galloway sacked by talkRADIO over allegedly anti-Semitic tweet". BBC. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  11. ^ "Countdown's Rachel Riley in secret talks over Katie Hopkins' Twitter suspension". Metro. 30 January 2020. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  12. ^ "Katie Hopkins' account locked after an anti-hate group met with Twitter". iNews. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  13. ^ "Katie Hopkins locked out of Twitter after Rachel Riley intervention". Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  14. ^ "Katie Hopkins suspended from Twitter for violating social network's anti-hate policy". Yahoo! News. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  15. ^ "Katie Hopkins' Twitter Reinstated Following Week-Long Absence". Huffington Post. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  16. ^ Slawson, Nicola; Waterson, Jim (19 June 2020). "Katie Hopkins permanently removed from Twitter". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  17. ^ a b "Icke antisemitic conspiracies viewed over 30 million times, new research shows". The Jewish Chronicle. 10 May 2020.
  18. ^ "#DeplatformIcke: How Big Tech powers and profits from David Icke's lies and hate, and why it must stop" (PDF). Center for Countering Digital Hate. 10 May 2020.
  19. ^ "YouTube terminates David Icke's account over Covid-19 conspiracy theories". ITV News. 10 May 2020.
  20. ^ "Coronavirus: David Icke kicked off Facebook". BBC News. 10 May 2020.
  21. ^ "Coronavirus: David Icke's channel deleted by YouTube". BBC. 10 May 2020.
  22. ^ "YouTube terminates David Icke's account". Yahoo! News. 10 May 2020.
  23. ^ "YouTube deletes conspiracy theorist David Icke's channel". The Guardian. 10 May 2020.
  24. ^ "Twitter bans David Icke over Covid misinformation". BBC News. 2020-11-04. Retrieved 2020-11-04.
  25. ^ "Hatebook | Center for Countering Digital Hate". CCDH. Retrieved 2021-06-03.
  26. ^ "Facebook condemned for hosting neo-Nazi network with UK links". the Guardian. 2020-11-22. Retrieved 2021-06-03.
  27. ^ ""Gas chambers" Facebook group one of several that sold neo-Nazi merchandise to fund far-right groups". Newsweek. 2020-11-23. Retrieved 2021-06-03.
  28. ^ a b c "#No2Misinfo - Sign the Letter". CCDH. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  29. ^ Hsu, Tiffany (2020-10-25). "Conservative News Sites Fuel Voter Fraud Misinformation". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  30. ^ www.bloomberg.com https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-27/google-runs-ads-on-election-conspiracy-theory-sites-study-finds. Retrieved 2021-05-24. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  31. ^ "YouTube fails to remove video falsely declaring Trump victory". the Guardian. 2020-11-05. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  32. ^ Fraser, Adele-Momoko (17 June 2020). "Google bans website ZeroHedge from its ad platform over comments on protest articles". NBC News. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
  33. ^ "Board of Trustees". Victim Support.
  34. ^ "Pilot Task Force Steering Committee". Commission for Countering Extremism. 26 May 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  35. ^ a b Frazer, Jenni. "'The reason social media companies tolerate hate? Profit'". jewishnews.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
  36. ^ "In the thick of it". www.parliament.uk. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
  37. ^ "Imran Ahmed". Bite Back Publishing. 10 May 2020.
  38. ^ "Our People | Center for Countering Digital Hate". CCDH. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
  39. ^ "Morgan McSweeney". Keir Starmer MP. 9 Dec 2020.
  40. ^ a b c d {{cite web |url=https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/11633127/officers%7Ctitle=Center For Countering Digital Hate Ltd|work=Companies House|date=10 May 2020
  41. ^ "Dr Siobhan McAndrew". University of Bristol. 10 May 2020.
  42. ^ "Kirsty McNeill". Save the Children. 9 Dec 2020.
  43. ^ "Tom Brookes". European Climate Foundation. 9 Dec 2020.

Further reading

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Center_for_Countering_Digital_Hate&oldid=1044550333"