#defyhatenow_Cameroon - #defyhatenow

#defyhatenow Cameroon

Mobilising Civic Action to Counter Hate Speech and Violent Extremism both Online and Offline

The #defyhatenow initiative works on providing community-based and data-driven solutions to the problem of hate speech, disinformation and misinformation. Our work focuses on creating a framework for increasing trust between stakeholders through mobilising civic action against all forms of hate speech and incitement to violence, including disinformation created via the Covid-19 pandemic.

#defyhatenow Cameroon seeks to support the voices and actions of citizens working against online-induced conflict within and outside affected regions by bringing youth, community leaders, grassroots organisations and further civil society stakeholders into a peace-oriented media and information literacy framework. Bridging gaps of knowledge and awareness of social media mechanisms between those with access to technology and those without, #defyhatenow is a growing network of online and offline peacebuilders.

The project is implemented by Civic Watch, a community-based organization registered in Cameroon as a non-profit youth led organization. Civic Watch acts as an intermediary organisation for schools, civic debate spaces or separate public/private organisations for learning and exploring questions of participation and accountability of locally elected officials. Its main goal merges with the initiative’s mandate, which is community mobilisation to counter hateful rhetoric among young people both online and offline.

Through the German Federal Foreign Office grant, this peacebuilding collaboration has enabled keep conflict mitigation conversations going, develop public resources, including comprehensive bilingual Social Media Hate Speech Mitigation Field Guides, an Early Warning Early Response System and support local activists toward peace-oriented media-based activities.

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Our Focus Areas

Open Tech and Emergency Response

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Technology helps create predictive models, which can better understand how an emergency or disaster will impact the area. Understanding and viewing the prediction makes it easier to create an effective plan of action that addresses the concerns that the predictive model brings to light. We work with technology to help manage emergencies and disaster situations to help lead to more effective advances and innovations in conflict-prone areas. We aim to facilitate emergency response agencies to resolve threats in a timely and comprehensive manner.

Activism , Art and Campaigns

We work with organisations that use art, campaigns and nonviolent activism to promote and intervene in social and political reforms with the desire to make changes in society toward a greater good. We build strong relationships with peacebuilders and conflict mitigation experts to strengthen nonviolent action and peacebuilding efforts.

Policy Development and Political Leadership

Public policy is essentially a government decision undertaken to pursue a specific goal or objective which may or may not be enforceable at the central, state or local level of governance. Policy-making is a dynamic process that is changing dramatically with the increased involvement from different stakeholders. For meaningful public policy, there is a need for input from the public. We work with institutions that work with the public for participation, thus providing communication between government agencies making decisions and the public.

Another way of ensuring that people’s voices are heard and determining policy-making that we employ in our work is activism and advocacy.

Education , Trauma Relief and Psychosocial Support

Going through extraordinarily stressful events more often than not leads to lasting emotional and psychological trauma. Our work in conflict mitigation might help alleviate the immediate sources of the trauma, but time does not necessarily heal all wounds, and so post-trauma stress is quite common. We work with institutions that help individuals who have gone through trauma that may have been caused by rape, domestic violence, experiencing/witnessing an act of violence, among others, cope with the events that come with it.

These institutions include and are not limited to learning institutions that work with women, youth and children.

Social Media Monitoring, Analysis and Citizen Data

We use data to contribute to peacebuilding efforts with a specific focus on social media platforms, capacity building, and tech policy. We work with institutions to help them utilize technology to strengthening their peacebuilding capacity. Some of our work in this field includes; Fact-checking training programs for content creators, Fellowships for journalists on fact-checking and data journalism, Data Visualizations and Digital rights, policy, & advocacy.

Recent Activities

photo_2023-05-09_19-16-59 — National Symposium on Hate speech and violence in Cameroon.
For three days, we shall be bringing together eminent experts/consultants,…

FtmQmyXaYAA5Qdy — Media Leaders Forum 2023
Media leaders shall gather in Yaounde on April 28 to discuss…

FoiGep-WAAEXs2J — Youth Peace Panel Discussion
Topic: I am responsible for building peace and a #HateFreeCa…

Football Peace Building & Human Rights — Football, Peace Building & Human Rights, #237FootBerlin Calender launch
At #defyhatenow, we understand the importance of engaging with…

Tweets by DefyhatenowWCA

#defyhatenow Field Guide Cameroon 2.0

Social Media Hate Speech Mitigation Field Guide [Second Edition 2021]

The Field Guide offers tools and strategies to be used by community-based organizations & online campaigns for peacebuilding. This is the second version of the Cameroon Field Guide that incorporates more context from the lessons learned from implementing the project over a two year period.

Divided into six chapters that cover a specific aspect of the conflict and peacebuilding process, the field guide acts as a base of action on media-induced hate speech awareness to tackle conflict, support media literacy and address issues of migration and displacement.

The Field Guide Contains:

One A4 Field Guide Booklet that covers a range of topics and includes discussion questions.
A5 Flashcards, which summarize content from the Field Guide and can be used for group discussions.
A1 Poster & Game, which provides a quick reference guide on one side and a #HateFreeCameroon game on the other side that is designed to be played in groups to help reinforce the topic.
1 Dice used to play the #HateFreeCameroon game.
A2 Posters that visually illustrate topics covered in the Field Guide and can be used to lead discussions or hung on walls as reminders.
A USB ‘Key’ with video and audio materials and links to additional resources.
1 ‘PenNotGun’
2 packs of post-it sticky notes to get you started.
1 sturdy pouch that serves to keep all materials contained.