Cyber world, our world

Aims & objectives

1. To inform about the problem of hate speech online and increase knowledge about this phenomenon.
2. To promote actions against discrimination and xenophobia in the Internet.
3. To stimulate discussion and understanding about the relation between hate speech and freedom of speech.
4. To increase knowledge about international and national law regulations connected with hate speech and hate speech online.
5. To learn how to recognize cases of hate speech online and how to react in such situations.
6. To create special tools useful for fighting against hate speech.
7. To analyse different methods and strategies of manipulation and propaganda techniques used in Internet to spread xenophobia, racism and sexism.
8. To analyse psychological and cultural mechanisms of arising hate speech and discuss what kind of social change is necessary to prevent creating such phenomenon.

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

Participants in the training were from: Austria, Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Greece, Turkey, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Ukraine, Georgia, Croatia.
The team of trainers was composed by an Italian and a Portuguese trainer.

Training methods used & main activities

The main methods and activities were: small group work, group self-directed learning and research, cooperative learning, simulation games, artistic expression, online research, offline actions (videos and leaflet distribution), power-point presentations, brainstorming, project development, structured debate.

Outcomes of the activity

One of the main outcomes of the training course was a website, that is no longer available: http://www.nohatespeech.ceipes.org/ Additionally the participants developed several products:
- Artistic works against hate speech online where they tried to use propaganda techniques to catch people’s attention and interest
- Video against hate speech online (for the action day 21st September)
- Slogan against hate speech online (for the action day 21st September)
- Videos to upload in the No Hate Speech Movement platform (Council of Europe official website of the campaign)
- Reports on how to deal with online forms of hate speech
- Analysis of hate sites and other forms of hate speech online

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

I was the main coordinator of the team and I was involved in the full implementation of the training programme.

I worked on this training for 6 days as a full time trainer.