Online Abuse Prevention Initiative

Last updated

Online Abuse Prevention Initiative
Available inEnglish
Founder(s) Randi Lee Harper
URL onlineabuseprevention.org [1]
CommercialNo
LaunchedMarch 2015;9 years ago (2015-03)

The Online Abuse Prevention Initiative (OAPI) is a non-profit organization whose aim is to study and combat abuse on the Internet.

Contents

History

OAPI was created by Randi Lee Harper in response to Twitter's lack of tools for filtering online harassment. [2] OAPI was founded in 2015, with Crash Override Network's Zoë Quinn and Alex Lifschitz stated as serving on the inaugural board of directors. [3] In March 2015 Quinn announced a formal partnership between the two organizations. [4]

Activities

The stated goals of the OAPI are to study online abuse, and to reduce and mitigate it through technical measures and collaboration with tech companies. [5] Its first public campaign was an open letter to ICANN, the organization responsible for coordinating the Internet's Domain Name System, opposing the latter's plans to end anonymity of WHOIS records for commercial websites. OAPI argues that ICANN's proposals will make it easier for abusers to physically endanger domain name registrants through doxxing and swatting, [6] [1] and that those marginalized for their race, gender, or sexual orientation are disproportionately at risk. [7] The letter attracted signatures and support from over fifty organizations supporting online privacy or protection of at-risk communities, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, The Tor Project, and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. [6] [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ICANN</span> American nonprofit organization that coordinates several Internet address databases

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization head-quartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces and numerical spaces of the Internet, ensuring the Internet's stable and secure operation. ICANN performs the actual technical maintenance work of the Central Internet Address pools and DNS root zone registries pursuant to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) function contract. The contract regarding the IANA stewardship functions between ICANN and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the United States Department of Commerce ended on October 1, 2016, formally transitioning the functions to the global multistakeholder community.

A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last non empty label of a fully qualified domain name. For example, in the domain name www.example.com, the top-level domain is .com. Responsibility for management of most top-level domains is delegated to specific organizations by the ICANN, an Internet multi-stakeholder community, which operates the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and is in charge of maintaining the DNS root zone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domain name</span> Identification string in the Internet

In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. Domain names are used in various networking contexts and for application-specific naming and addressing purposes. In general, a domain name identifies a network domain or an Internet Protocol (IP) resource, such as a personal computer used to access the Internet, or a server computer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet Assigned Numbers Authority</span> Standards organization overseeing IP addresses

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is a standards organization that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System (DNS), media types, and other Internet Protocol–related symbols and Internet numbers.

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is the organization that manages the .ca country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Canada. Its offices are located at 979 Bank Street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. CIRA sets the policies and agendas that support Canada's internet community and Canada's involvement in international internet governance. It is a member-driven organization with membership open to all that hold a .ca domain. As of March 2023, there were more than 3.3 million active .ca domains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parry Aftab</span> American lawyer

Parry Aftab is an Internet privacy and security lawyer, considered one of the founders of cyberlaw and founder of the world's largest and oldest cybersafety charity. Named by The Boston Herald as "the leading expert in cybercrime in the world," Aftab wrote the first cybersafety book in the world for parents and has received a long list of honors and has been appointed to the boards of directors and advisory boards of several companies, including TRUSTe, Facebook, MTV and Sesame Street Online. She is a longtime Internet safety expert who founded the Internet safety organization WiredSafety, StopCyberbullying and the consulting firm, WiredTrust. She was "the Privacy Lawyer" columnist for Information Week Magazine for many years. In 2016 Parry Aftab founded Cybersafety India and the StopCyberbullying and sextortion and morphing prevention initiatives for India. She resides in both the US and Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet governance</span> System of laws, policies and practices

Internet governance consists of a system of laws, rules, policies and practices that dictate how its board members manage and oversee the affairs of any internet related-regulatory body. This article describes how the Internet was and is currently governed, some inherent controversies, and ongoing debates regarding how and why the Internet should or should not be governed in future.

Crime prevention is the attempt to reduce and deter crime and criminals. It is applied specifically to efforts made by governments to reduce crime, enforce the law, and maintain criminal justice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swatting</span> Criminal harassment tactic

Swatting is a criminal harassment act of deceiving an emergency service into sending a police or emergency service response team to another person's address. This is triggered by false reporting of a serious law enforcement emergency, such as a bomb threat, murder, hostage situation, or a false report of a mental health emergency, such as reporting that a person is allegedly suicidal or homicidal and may be armed, among other things.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophia Bekele</span> Ethiopian-American businesswoman

Sophia Bekele Eshete is an entrepreneur, corporate executive, governance and risk management specialist, policy advisor on ICT, commentator and philanthropist.

Intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV) deals with sexual violence within the context of domestic violence. Intimate partner sexual violence is defined by any unwanted sexual contact or activity by an intimate partner in order to control an individual through fear, threats, or violence. Women are the primary victims of this type of violence.

Markmonitor Inc. is an American software company founded in 1999. It develops software intended to protect corporate brands from Internet counterfeiting, fraud, piracy, and cybersquatting. MarkMonitor also develops and publishes reports on the prevalence of brand abuse on the Internet.

DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA) is an independent non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in 2006. The organization was incorporated in Mauritius with its main charitable objectives to: (a) for the advancement of education in information technology to the African society and access to internet resources; and (b) in connection with (a) to provide the African society with a continental Internet domain name by sponsoring, establishing, and operating a new Top Level Domain (TLD) ".africa" for purposes of branding Africa on the Internet.

Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic means. Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers and adolescents, due to the communication technology advancements and young people's increased use of such technologies. Cyberbullying is when someone, typically a teenager, bullies or harasses others on the internet and other digital spaces, particularly on social media sites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doxing</span> Publication of the private details of individuals, often on the Internet

Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information about an individual or organization, usually via the Internet and without their consent. Historically, the term has been used to refer to both the aggregation of this information from public databases and social media websites, and the publication of previously private information obtained through criminal or otherwise fraudulent means. The aggregation and provision of previously published material is generally legal, though it may be subject to laws concerning stalking and intimidation. Doxing may be carried out for reasons such as online shaming, extortion, and vigilante aid to law enforcement. It also may be associated with hacktivism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public Interest Registry</span>

Public Interest Registry is a not-for-profit based in Reston, Virginia, created by the Internet Society in 2002 to manage the .ORG top-level domain. It took over operation of .ORG in January 2003 and launched the .NGO and .ONG top-level domains in March 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Violent extremism</span> Extremism perpetrated through violent means

Violent extremism is a form of extremism that condones and enacts violence with ideological or deliberate intent, such as religious or political violence. Violent extremist views often conflate with religious and political violence, and can manifest in connection with a range of issues, including politics, religion, and gender relations.

Gamergate or GamerGate (GG) was a loosely organized misogynistic online harassment campaign and a right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture. It was conducted using the hashtag "#Gamergate" primarily in 2014 and 2015. Gamergate targeted women in the video game industry, most notably feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian and video game developers Zoë Quinn and Brianna Wu.

Crash Override Network was a support group for victims of large scale online abuse, including revenge porn and doxing.

Cybersex trafficking, live streaming sexual abuse, webcam sex tourism/abuse or ICTs -facilitated sexual exploitation is a cybercrime involving sex trafficking and the live streaming of coerced sexual acts and/or rape on webcam.

References

  1. 1 2 Mitchell, Benjamin F. (July 7, 2015). "Move to combat piracy could increase Internet harassment, activists say". USA Today. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
  2. Amidon, Timothy R.; Stedman, Kyle; DeVoss, Dànielle Nicole (2018). "Remix and Unchill: Remaking Pedagogies to Support Ethical Fair Use". In Hobbs, Renee (ed.). The Routledge Companion to Media Education, Copyright, and Fair Use. New York: Routledge. p. 69. ISBN   978-1-3172-6834-5.
  3. "About OAPI". Online Abuse Prevention Initiative. n.d. Retrieved April 28, 2023 via WordPress.
  4. Needleman, Sarah E. (March 4, 2015). "Game Developer: The Gaming Industry Is Not Doing Enough to Combat Misogyny". Digits. The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on March 5, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. Poland, Bailey (2016). Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online. Lincoln, Neb.: Potomac Books. p. 246. ISBN   978-1-6123-4766-0.
  6. 1 2 Hern, Alex (July 10, 2015). "Icann plan to end website anonymity 'could lead to swatting attacks'". The Guardian. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
  7. 1 2 Belfiore, Guillaume (July 9, 2015). "L'ICANN : vers la fin d'un Internet anonyme" [ICANN: towards the end of an anonymous Internet?]. Clubic (in French). Retrieved April 28, 2023.