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

History

The OAPI was founded in 2015 by Randi Lee Harper, with

Crash Override Network Crash Override Network was a support group for victims of large scale online abuse, including revenge porn and doxing. History Crash Override was founded by game developers Zoë Quinn and Alex Lifschitz, and was staffed exclusively by victim ...

Zoë Quinn Zoë Tiberius Quinn (born 1987) is an American video game developer, programmer, and writer. Quinn developed the interactive fiction game '' Depression Quest'', which was released in 2013. In 2014, a defamatory blog post by their ex-boyfrien ...

and Alex Lifschitz stated as serving on the inaugural board of directors. In March 2015 Quinn announced a formal partnership between the two organizations.

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. Its first public campaign was an

open letter An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter addressed to an indiv ...

to ICANN, the organization responsible for coordinating the Internet's

Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned t ...

, opposing the latter's plans to end anonymity of

WHOIS WHOIS (pronounced as the phrase "who is") is a query and response protocol that is widely used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block or an autonomou ...

records for commercial websites. OAPI argues that ICANN's proposals will make it easier for abusers to physically endanger

domain name A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...

registrants through

doxxing Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information about an individual or organization, usually via the internet. Historically, the term has been used interchangeably to refer to both the aggregation of this in ...

and swatting, and that those marginalized for their race, gender, or sexual orientation are disproportionately at risk. 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 The Tor Project, Inc. is a Seattle-based 501(c)(3) research-education nonprofit organization founded by computer scientists Roger Dingledine, Nick Mathewson and five others. The Tor Project is primarily responsible for maintaining software fo ...

, and the

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the mission to be the voice of victims and survivors of domestic violence. Based in Denver, Colorado. National Coalition Against Domestic Violence ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Online Abuse Prevention Initiative Cyberbullying Gamergate (harassment campaign) Internet culture Organizations established in 2015 Video game culture