founded by Magenta
1997
Suzette Bronkhorst and Ronald Eissens started the first Internet Discrimination Hotline worldwide. The then Minister of Internal Affairs, Hans Dijkstal, opened the Hotline (Meldpunt Discriminatie Internet / MDI) on March 21, 1997 [report] in the De Balie debate center in Amsterdam. The Hotline was funded by the Ministry of Justice.
The MDI investigated reports of (alleged) expressions of discrimination, racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, homophobia and tried to find out who was responsible. If such an internet statement was punishable under the Dutch Criminal Code, the MDI informed the provider, and if the statement was not removed, the reporter or the MDI reported it to the Public Prosecution Service.
However, this is no different from what applies to any other Dutch citizen, which means that the actual power of the MDI was also limited. The MDI, on the other hand, possessed legal knowledge and experience, and thus offered citizens and organizations assistance in removing criminal material.
2002
Opponents of the MDI, from both the extreme left and the extreme right, regularly quarreled with each other — and the MDI. Right-wing columnists saw a Great Left Conspiracy, in which the MDI would play a key role, while left-wing media perceived the opposite. In 2004, the Dutch Press Council has declared such allegations to be unfounded and defamatory.
2004
In 2004, Edwin Martin came up with the idea of 'The Haterix'. A Flash-movie that would show the horrors of cyber hate. Ronald loved the idea. Jolie volunteered to create the animation, Ronald and Suzette wrote the texts and Ronald provided the text audio with help from a friend in New York.
Flash got deprecated in 2020, but with the help of an ancient computer, the animation was converted to YouTube. Listen to Ronald as Rofius:
2016
On December 22, 2016, MiND
took over the registration of reports of discrimination, racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and homophobia on the internet from Meldpunt Discriminatie Internet. MiND is part of the public-private foundation NL Confidential.
2021