Designed for use ‘in the field’ and includes training materials and workshop resources, the #defyhatenow Social Media Hatespeech Mitigation Field Guide is designed to raise awareness, develop counter- narratives, and mitigate violence related to online hate speech and induced conflict within and outside affected regions in Cameroon. Youth, community leaders, grassroots organizations and civil society stakeholders using the field guide within an information literacy framework. Bridging gaps of knowledge and awareness of social media mechanisms is capital to achieving this document’s goal within our communities.
While hate speech can form a basis for incitement, one can still use personal strategies to engage speakers in shifting attitudes and bringing down the tone of rhetoric. Group strategies are needed to respond as a community to dangerous speech online and mitigate the factors contributing to violence offline. As far as there is prejudice and discrimination based on ethnic, culture, race, religion or gender, we will not shy away from going into the most remote communities to contribute to #PeaceBuilding. It is to this end that our team is on the field at the foot of Mount Fako, in Buea, popularly referred to as “Chariot of the gods”, to train community and association leaders on the use of the #FieldGuideCameroon 2.0 as a conflict and Hatespeech mitigation tool.
Renowned for its “Legendary Hospitality”, Buea is host to some of Cameroon’s oldest public and academic institutions, as well as people from different parts of the country and beyond. Equally marked as one of the historical regions in Cameroon, it is also one of the towns affected by the ongoing Anglophone crisis rocking the two English-speaking Regions. the peace and tranquility of her community members and youth development.
The two-day training seeks to engage grassroot organizations, youth led groups, CSOs and other local stakeholders in crafting sustainable ways to promoting #PeaceBuilding activities in their communities for a #HateFreeCameroon. At the end of this training, we would attempted to answer the following questions; strategies on how to tackle hate speech, ways to identify hate speech online – on social media, modern tools to use toward ending hate speech within their areas of influence and target groups, ways to engage young people in the mitigation of hate speech on social media and in the communities, strategies for tackling hatespeech via African women and young girls for peacebuilding initiative, the roles of bystanders in the promotion of peace and mitigation of hate ?
Bringing the #FieldGuideCameroon 2.0 to them is fueled with the aim that these local actors will develop skills and techniques that can help reduce the ongoing conflict and rebuild sustainable peace in their communities. This will be possible through sensitization sessions, advocacy meetups, training and peacebuilding campaigns 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 mobilizing civic action against all forms of hate speech and incitement to violence. #defyhatenow seeks to support the voices and actions of citizens working against online induced conflict within and outside affected regions by bringing different stakeholders into a peace-oriented media and information literacy framework.
To know more about our Social Media Mitigation Field Guide Click here here
