requirements provide opportunities to gather data specifically about the experiences of First Nations peoples. Representatives of those teams interviewed for this project considered that a national framework or strategy that includes racism in the criminal justice system would be useful to inform their work. Rise of hate speech and online misinformation The Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) gives the eSafety Commissioner increased powers to address online harm. While the Act does not make specific reference to racial discrimination, vilification or online hate speech it does enable the Commissioner to act in certain relevant circumstances, for example: • Via a range of complaint schemes to report content to the Office of the eSafety Commissioner who can then investigate • The Adult Cyber Abuse Scheme, through which the Office of the eSafety Commissioner can consider racial discrimination under the higher threshold of eligible types of content deemed to be harassing, menacing and offensive in all the circumstances and intended to cause serious harm to an Australian individual • The Act’s online content scheme which allows for the Commissioner to order the removal of materials covered by its classifications, such as material inciting violence, promoting crime or terrorism (which often has racial undertones or elements), and • Basic online safety provisions set out in a determination by the Minister, under which the Commissioner can issue legal requests to sections of the industry to report on what they are doing to meet community expectations. For example, where service providers should enforce their own terms of service which include hate speech, racist speech and/or posts (e.g. June 2023 e-Safety Commissioner request to Twitter/X). Currently these provisions are limited in that they only deal with individuals. Further, the threshold has been intentionally set at a high level to allow for freedom of expression, which can often rule out sanctions for harmful abuse and harassment. From a policy perspective the Office of the e-Safety Commissioner is considering gaps in the Act where online discrimination is aimed at groups. The problem of online hate speech and mis/disinformation was raised by almost all stakeholders who took part in this research. It is an area of growing significance to government and provides a major opportunity to target policies and programs towards those who perpetrate as well as those who experience online harm. The NGO All Together Now is focused on addressing the drivers of hate speech, extremism and online misinformation, and much of their work is aimed at engaging young people. The Multicultural Youth Advocacy Network (MYAN) also focusses on the education system and suggest, anecdotally, that young people are leaving school early to avoid 24