Words Are Stones

Countering hate speech is essential for promoting tolerance and non-discrimination.

Grant Agreement Number: 764672

Funded by: REC Duration: 11/2017-10/2019

Challenge

The rapid growth of Internet as a mean of communication and the anonymity that it provides have proliferated the circulation of misleading information and online hate speech, provoking xenophobia, homophobia, sexism and abuse against minorities.

Innovation

Words Are Stones aims at stimulating young bloggers, youtubers and online activists to counter online hate speech.

Action

A training material has been developed to enhance the skills of journalists, social media activists and influencers on how to counter online hate speech. The material was based on focus groups with young people in order to identify the most usual problems and challenges. The training toolkit includes the following topics: how to use social media, how do you interact, fake news and happy speech.

A Youth Media Campaign has been organized by young people in order to engage their peers in the fight against online hate speech, producing positive social impact. The campaign is based on online and offline activities. The online activities include a social media campaign (Facebook, Instagram), production of videos, photos and a board game – all related to online hate speech. The offline activities include trainings to young peers, organization of seminars and conferences regarding the motivation of more peers to fight online hate speech.

A European Social Media Contest took place, asking young people aged 14-25 to take photos or videos of hate speech in their cities and to transform them into happy speech.
The prize for the 1st place + a teacher/adult was a 2 days trip to London to visit Facebook/Google headquarters.

Thee Greek participation won the contest. See more.