Health Program: Health SWAT Team

The Online Policy Group tracks incidents of online bias, defamation, and discrimination against individuals and/or communities based on their health status, as well as partnering with other organizations who track and respond to such incidents. Please help by reporting such incidents and responding to them, as well as reviewing media coverage and links to related organizations and publications.

Report Online Incidents of Health-Related Bias

Please report any incidents of health-related bias, discrimination, or defamation that you discover online on the OPG incident report form.

Respond to Online Incidents of Health-Related Bias

Please respond to the following action alerts regarding online incidents of health-related bias, defamation, and discrimination.

Recent Alerts

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Media Coverage

	Studies Probe Web Link to HIV Surge
	Will Doherty, executive director of QueerNet/Online Policy Group, a nonprofit focused on providing wider Internet access, noted that online dates, or hookups, don't of themselves cause STD infection, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network (July 29, 2003)

	U.S. Wants Court Out of Abortion Case
	The Bush administration urged the Supreme Court to reject a politically charged abortion case that seeks free-speech protection for protesters who used "wanted" posters to target doctors, Associated Press via Yahoo! News (June 2, 2003)

	An Orwellian Purge
	A May 31, 2002 internal memo from the Education Department, "Criterion and Process for Removing Old Content from www.ed.gov," the department's Web site, is strangely akin to what occurs in 1984, Baltimore Sun (April 28, 2003)

	Use of 'Gay' May Block AIDS Research
	Federal health officials have given undocumented warnings to scientists who study AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases to keep words like "gay" and "transgender" out of their grant applications if they wish to receive funds, the New York Times reported on Friday, PlanetOut (April 18, 2003)

	Certain Words Can Trip Up AIDS Grants, Scientists Say
	Scientists who study AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases say they have been warned by federal health officials that their research may come under unusual scrutiny by the Department of Health and Human Services or by members of Congress, because the topics are politically controversial, New York Times (free registration) (April 18, 2003)

Recent Coverage

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Organizations and Related Publications

	Emergency Order Against Anti-Abortion Cybersquatter
	Clarified to Encompass Registration as Well as Use of Domain Names, United States District Court (September 5, 2002)

	Posting of Abortion Doctor Data on Sites Constitutes Threat
	The operators of a website containing personal information about doctors and others involved in providing abortion services can be held liable for damages under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and anti-racketeering statutes, U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (Adobe pdf file) (May 16, 2002)

	Birds, Bees, and Filtering Technology: The Impact of CIPA on Adolescent Health
	Stacy Lau's paper analyzes the effects of the Children's Internet Protection Act on the health of minors, Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy, Princeton University (Adobe pdf file) (January 8, 2002)

Recent Publications

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