HONR Network: The Sandy Hook Nonprofit Fighting Online Hoaxes and Harassment

What HONR is

HONR Network is a Sandy Hook nonprofit. I started it in 2014. My son Noah was six when he was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. He was the youngest victim.

Losing Noah was the worst thing that ever happened to me. Then it got worse. People who claimed the shooting was staged started going after our family online. They defaced Noah’s photos and passed them around. They called us actors. They posted where we lived, and posted it again every time we moved. Other Sandy Hook parents got the same treatment.

I couldn’t just wait for that to stop on its own. So I started learning how to get this stuff taken down, and other people stepped up to help. That became HONR.

HONR Network Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity based in Orlando, Florida. Our EIN is 82-3556040. We’re non-partisan and not tied to any political party.

Why a Sandy Hook nonprofit focused on online hate

Most people think the hard part after a tragedy is the grief. For a lot of families, the second hard part is the internet. Hoaxers turn a victim’s name into a search term for lies. Photos of your child end up on sites that mock or deny their death. Platforms often don’t act until someone keeps pushing.

Sandy Hook families saw this early and saw it at scale. What we learned the hard way, we now use to help families after other mass shootings and tragedies, and people dealing with online harassment in general.

What we actually do

• Find and report. Our volunteers search for hoax, harassment and hate content aimed at victims and their families, and report it to the sites that host it.
• Get it out of search. We ask Google and Bing to delist hoax pages, stolen photos and pirated copies of hoax books, so a search for a victim’s name leads to the truth.
• Use copyright. Families often own the copyright in their own photos and videos. We use that to file DMCA notices with websites, hosts and platforms that republish those images.
• Push the platforms. We hold platforms to their own rules and press them to change policies that leave victims exposed.
• Connect people with help. Through our network we connect victims with legal, media and counseling support.
• Teach. We help victims, law enforcement, employers and others understand online harassment and how to deal with it.

Who we help

We started with Sandy Hook families. Today we help victims of mass-casualty events and their families, and anyone being targeted by online hoaxes and harassment. If someone is spreading lies about you or a loved one after a tragedy, you can report it to us or contact us.

How you can help

HONR runs on volunteers and donations. Every gift helps us keep searching, reporting and pushing for change, so the next family has an easier time than we did.

Donate to HONR Network, the Sandy Hook nonprofit

You can also volunteer with our search and report team, or share this page with someone who needs it.

Learn more

• About HONR Network: our mission and goals
• How I founded HONR
• Sandy Hook and the hoax campaign against the families
• How HONR fights hoaxer harassment of Sandy Hook parents

Thank you for caring about Noah and the other 25 people we lost that day, and about every family that has had to fight lies on top of grief.

— Lenny Pozner, founder, HONR Network