Factsheet – Best practices examples & EU tools

About the project

Analysis of hate data collected by members of the International Network Against Cyber Hate, INACH, in Europe has shown that there are strong and documented links between current online hate phenomena and hate-slurs, prejudices and practices that have been propagated in the Third Reich.

To transform these worrisome findings into effective warnings, especially since remembrance and knowledge on the Holocaust and its horrors are fading, the project Remember and ACT! (Re-ACT) is putting a special focus on researching how “old” concepts of antisemitism and antigypsyism are being re-enacted by concerted hate campaigns and where they originated from. Starting from there, Re-ACT will develop, collect and provide educational materials and tools for the prevention of racism, xenophobia, homophobia and other forms of intolerance.

These self-generated sets of information plus a curated collection of high-quality educational materials will build the foundation for the establishment of an online prevention-hub at INACH.

About the factsheet

This factsheet was prepared by ROMEA and LICRA for the Re-ACT project. It is based on a selection of materials: available tools, good practices, and creative approaches in fighting antigypsyism and antisemitism by connecting them with their historical forms as well as with other groups exposed to online hate speech. The focus of this report is to encourage civil society to fight online hate speech by providing them relevant material. The list of selected materials is non-exhaustive and based on criteria developed during a 2-days Re-ACT workshop organised by ROMEA in June 2020 with relevant stakeholders.

“Education is the key to preventing the cycle of violence and hatred that marred the 20th century from repeating itself in the 21st century.” Elie Wiesel – Chicago Sun-Times, November 5, 2001.

Combating antisemitic and antigypsyist phenomena in our societies seems to be a long and fastidious process. Nonetheless, for decades, civil society, citizens but also institutions, all over Europe, have been involved in this combat. All these actions have led to the development and provision of new educational tools and inspiring practices, which can help others to contribute efficiently to this combat.

A key-element for tackling online hatred is to make available easily accessible high-quality and free educational materials and tools to relevant stakeholders such as young people but also teachers, educators and people directly involved in addressing online and offline hate speech.

The purpose of this factsheet is to provide a relevant and creative selection of several types of materials, from online tools to inspiring and easy-to-use practices available in English but also in several other languages; as well as to present, describe, classify, and highlight the selection of the European Union (EU) funded projects on hate speech. The selection and classification of the EU projects were based on the following criteria:

• the project must be EU funded
• the project must have obtained funding within the last 5 years
• it was funded under the programmes explicitly tackling hate speech (i.e. under the REC-RRAC-ONLINE-AG[1] and REC-RAAC-RECI-AG[2])
• if funded from a different source than the above-mentioned schemes of the EU Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) Programme, the project must tackle hate speech specifically as one of the main topics of the project
• the project description is accessible online.

Please note that projects usually have multiple goals but for the purposes of classification and clarity, they were categorized according to their predominant angle and according to how they can best be used as educational materials.

Overview of EU-funded projects tackling online hate speech

Click on the title to discover the project.

A. Focused on collecting data, monitoring, reporting

Research – Report – Remove: Countering Cyber Hate Phenomena

Collecting data from all project members from multiple countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain) on a monthly basis. Collecting and merging these pieces of data in order to synthesise a comprehensive and extensive picture of cyber hate in Europe in the 21st century.

SCAN project

sCAN aims at gathering expertise, tools, methodologies, and knowledge on cyber hate and developing transnational comprehensive practices for identifying, analysing, reporting, and counteracting online hate speech.

MANDOLA

Monitoring the spread and penetration of online hate-related speech in Europe and in Member States using big-data approaches, while investigating the possibility to distinguish, amongst monitored contents, between potentially illegal hate-related speeches and potentially non illegal ones; transferring best practices among Member States; setting up a reporting infrastructure that will connect concerned citizens with police forces and which will enable the reporting of illegal hate-related speech.

AGAINST HATE

The project focuses on the development of hate crime and speech reporting, on the enhancement of the capacity of the police, prosecutors, and judges to act against hate crime and hate speech.[3]

ALRECO

Improve the capacities of State authorities to identify, analyse, monitor and evaluate online hate speech in order to design shared strategies against discourse motivated by racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia or anti-Semitism.

C.O.N.T.A.C.T

Setting up a hate crime recording website and phone app; training and awareness raising among relevant actors such as police and officials, media professionals, youth; conducting research into online hate speech and its perception; creating a joint university teaching module.

B. Focused on antisemitism

NOA project

An online map of good practices and resources published on the projects website, supports Member States in the implementation of their action plans.

C. Focused on xenophobia/anti-migrant hate

RESPECT WORDS

Focused on hate speech directed at migrants. Creation of an ethical code on the journalistic treatment of the aspects related to migratory processes as well as ethnic and religious minorities; an online interactive map of European best practices for migration processes and minority and produce and broadcast a European radio campaign. This radio campaign has “RESPECT WORDS” as the common project name and the motto `Ethical Journalism Against Hate Speech´ in different languages.[4]

D. Focused on anti-Muslim hate/Islamophobia

Counter-Islamophobia kit

Findings based on normative patterns of Islamophobia and effective counter-narratives to anti-Muslim hatred in each case have informed the production of a transferable ‘Counter-Islamophobia Kit’ (CIK), which aims to detail best-practice in countering anti-Muslim hate across the continent.

E. Focused on young people

BRICKS against hate speech

The project explores the opportunities offered by modern technologies for empowering young people to use the information disseminated by online media and social networks in a critical way and to promote their active role in the struggle against online racist and xenophobic speech.[5]

Do One Brave Thing

To empower youth aged between 16 to 26 years-old in Hungary, Italy, Poland and Romania with the skills, knowledge and tools they need to engage constructively and challenge polarisation and extremism in their daily lives in their communities, countries and in Europe.

PLAY YOUR ROLE: GAMIFICATION AGAINST HATE SPEECH

The project exploits the positive potential of videogames to provide safe contexts of discussion, reinforcing and rewarding positive behavior and approaching serious topics in a playful manner, with a language that speaks directly to young people.

YES – Youth Empowerment Support for Muslim communities

To help organisations and young activists fighting hate speech to become more efficient by providing them user friendly tools.

F. Focused on journalists and media specialists

SILENCE HATE

Exchanging best practices among journalists, media activists and bloggers, improving their capacity to create counter-narratives on migration issues; Providing teachers, educators, activists and young people with tools of analysis and operational tools to recognize and combat online hate speech.[6]

G. Focused on technology and online hates speech

DeTact

DeTACT uses new AI for detecting hate speech, to assist upstanders to deflate toxic discussions in a self-regulatory approach.

The Open Code for Hate-Free Communication

Developing free and open software solutions for moderating user-generated content.

Innovative Monitoring Systems and Prevention Policies of Online Hate Speech

The project is tackling hate speech in a multidisciplinary fashion combining machine learning, computational social science and linguistic approaches to support a data-driven approach to hate speech regulation, prevention and awareness-raising.

H. Focused on antigypsism

Freedom From Hate: Empowering civil society to counter cyberhate against Roma

This project will test and evaluate effective counter narrative campaigns targeting online hate speech against Roma communities in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, and across Europe.[7]

PEER EDUCATION TO COUNTER ANTIGYPSYIST ONLINE HATE SPEECH

PECAO is countering antigypsyist hate speech online by working with young people, using a combination of peer education and monitoring.

I. Focused on Gender

Hate speech, gender, social networks and political parties

The general objective of the project is to identify and analyse how the hate speech against the ‘ideology of gender’ has been appropriated by extreme right political parties in Europe using social networks and the internet.

FemResist

It is focused on empowering, supporting and protecting Muslim women affected by manifestations of intolerance, in particular hate speech. The core idea of “FemResist” is to establish “Antiracism Schools” in three countries providing to women from the general population and women migrants & refugees (also those living in camps), NGO’s and local authorities (including local & regional authorities representatives, Mass Media, etc.) of each country.

Online educational tools and courses

helping to create more interactive and engaging learning opportunities. Available in several languages – Click on the title to discover the tool.

Online tools and resources for tackling online hate speech

SELMA Toolkit resources

The SELMA Toolkit provides over 100 free resources and activities to tackle the issue of online hate speech with young people from 11 to 16 years-old, primarily in schools, but also in the out-of-school communities that impact on their well-being. It takes an evidence-based approach to prevent and remediate online hate speech.
Counter Hate e-guide This digital guide is aimed at youth and social workers who deal with the topic of digital media and hate speech in their work and whose goal is to strengthen the digital media literacy of young people. This tool focus on how important it is for young online users to be able to understand, analyse, and verify online content and deal critically with digital media.

Facing Facts Online! courses

Facing Facts offers a wide variety of learning opportunities on the topic of hate speech for a variety of target groups including CSOs, individual activists, educators, teachers and anyone else interested in gaining a deeper knowledge of hate speech and hate crime, including specific courses on antisemitism and on antigypsyism.

Counter Hate e-guide

This digital guide is aimed at youth and social workers who deal with the topic of digital media and hate speech in their work and whose goal is to strengthen the digital media literacy of young people. This tool focus on how important it is for young online users to be able to understand, analyse, and verify online content and deal critically with digital media.

Outside In – education tool

This educational tool is designed to support youth workers engaged with young people who express hateful speech and/or behaviour in youth settings. Although the focus is on youth work and challenging hate, the methodologies in this manual can be used in formal and non-formal settings and to transform other expressions of challenging behaviour.

Education teaching manuals and aids

WeCAN and Bookmarks

These two manuals present communicative and educational approaches and tools for youth and other human rights activists to develop their own counter and alternative narratives to hate speech. It is designed for working with young people from the age of 13.

Mirrors

Designed to empower 16 to 30-year olds to tackle individual and institutional racism against Roma, the manual provides educators, teachers, trainers, and youth organisations with comprehensive educational activities for groups of all types.

Teaching about Anti-Semitism through Education Teaching Aids

This online guidance offers aids to respond effectively to challenging questions or behaviour from students, by providing brief but essential background information on contemporary manifestations of antisemitism, signpost and other useful resources for further reading.

Inspiring and teaching approaches

For providing easy-to-use, successful, and inspiring learning practices. Available in several languages – Click on the title to discover the tool.

Creative, inspiring, and interactive approaches

@eva.stories on Instagram

This Instagram account recounts the real-life story of a Jewish girl, by imagining she had documented her days on a smartphone, murdered in a concentration camp.

Roma Memory Porajmos

This research album provides interactive elements for understanding the history of the Roma genocide with testimonies.

Dosta campaign

Dosta means “enough” in a variant of the Romani language spoken in the Balkans. It is also the title of an awareness-raising campaign of the Council of Europe which aims to bring non-Roma closer to Roma citizens by breaking down the barriers of deep-rooted prejudices and stereotypes.

NOA Compass

This online map of European initiatives overcoming antisemitism aims to identify projects and initiatives, bring them into a network and recognising complementarities.

Factsheets on Romani

This website provides easy-to-use and detailed factsheets on Romani history, language, culture, and literature.

Get the trolls out!

Best practices that confront antisemitic messages directly include the creation of counter-narratives tailored to tackle it, while also providing training on how to monitor and counter antisemitic messages such as done by “Get the Trolls Out!”. This project also counters anti-religious speech.

Creative, inspiring, and interactive approaches

Innovative approaches to the challenges we face

This course provides an understanding of the history of the Holocaust and innovative pedagogical approaches and resources, enabling stakeholders to develop their own materials.

The fate of European Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust

This website is a comprehensive online teaching resource which focuses exclusively on the genocide of the Roma and Sinti.

International Holocaust Remembrance alliance educational resources

This website provides a basis for practitioners, and educators that will help them to create engaging teaching environments to learn about genocide prevention education.

 

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