Counter Hate Digital Guide

Aims of the tool

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. For the prevention of hate speech, it is important for young Internet users to be able to understand, analyse, rate and verify explicit and implicit contents and deal critically with digital media – youth work can make an important contribution to this.

Description of the tool

The first chapter of this guide demonstrates how increasing digitalisation is accompanied by an increase in digital hate comments and how strong the influence of digital media on youths is. New approaches in the fight against hate speech on the Internet are presented and the effectiveness of new technologies is discussed.

Chapter two deals with the role of youth work in combating hate speech. Youth work is a form of out-of-school learning that is planned and structured, but is not a formal education offer. It accompanies and supports young people on their way to adult independence and maturity. Youth work strengthens everyday and social skills of youths and is a good possibility to foster the digital media literacy of young people – the basis for the prevention of hate speech.

The last two chapters introduce methods and best practice examples that youth workers can use in their work. The awareness raising for the topic hate speech through information, reflection and dialogue is an important aspect, as well as concrete, practical intervention possibilities.