The project “How much freedom of speech can a democracy tolerate” sets out to combat hate speech by: 1) empowering youth workers who work with young migrants and refugees, LGBTIQ+ individuals and other members of various marginalized groups to combat hate speech, by developing and producing contra- and alter-narratives by constituting and developing skills and knowledge, 2) capacity building at the level of organisations and individuals through an interactive online map and mobile app to recognize, respond to and transform hate speech, to combat it by means other than legal framework. The project is divided into three main pillars, which will all be developed and tested in this project: 1) recognising hate speech in graffiti and street art and reporting it on an interactive online map, 2) a mobile application, which will enable to add photos of hateful messages to the online map and 3) a practice manual for youth workers and youth organisations with visual case studies. The three partners Ljubljana Pride (Drustvo Parada ponosa), European Network Against Racism (ENAR) Ireland and Loesje e.V. are all active youth organisations, working towards inclusion and diversity in civil society, and against discrimination. Ljubljana Pride works for the implementation of human rights and interests of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) people. ENAR Ireland is a national network of anti-racism civil society organisations, working collectively to highlight and address racism in Ireland, through the promotion and monitoring of EU and global anti-racist initiatives. The cornerstone is the management of iReport.ie - an independent confidential online civil-society national racist incident recording system. Through its work with iReport.ie, ENAR Ireland is recognised across Europe as providing a model framework on monitoring racist incidents, hate crime and online hate speech, and establishing common reporting standards across the EU. Loesje e.V. is active in the fields of Human Rights Education, freedom of speech and activating public space. With our method for creative text writing and poster creation, we provide a possibility for people to express themselves and reflect on various important topics; providing them a practical way to exercise their freedom of speech and freedom of expression, online and offline. The partners will each contribute their respective expertise and be main responsible for one training each, using non-formal educational methods for combating discrimination, built on an intersectional approach. They will exchange their best practice methods to “decontraminate” hateful messages: the Loesje creative text writing method; reacting to and transforming hate speech manifestations by producing contra- and alter-narratives in a creative way. During the trainings, the online map and mobile application will be tested and improved. The experience of ENAR Ireland with iReport.ie will be important for this stage. In total 54 youth trainers and youth workers will attend the 3 training activities in Slovenia, Ireland and Germany. The most suitable participants for that specific training will be selected from the national networks of the partners. Most of the participants in the project come from marginalized groups, like refugees, migrants, LGBTIQ+ and so on. We will also conduct three transnational project meetings and three multiplier events, where the Intellectual Outputs of the project will be further disseminated. Expected results: • 100 educated youth workers (18 x 3 LTTA = 54 internationally trained), who will have expanded their skills, awareness, networks, and professional development. • 3 training activities per country for local/national youth workers - each training for 15 people • 1 publication of the online interactive map, tracking hate speech in graffiti and street art and their locations, available in English, German and Slovene. The map part will be in several more languages, due to it being a GoogleMap • 500 inserts into the online map in the framework of the project • 1 Mobile app, that will enable to add documentation of graffiti to the online map in an easily accessible and attractive way • 1 practice manual for youth workers and youth organisations with 5 visual case studies, published as a PDF in English, German and Slovene. We aim for minimum 500 views of the online manual • 3 multiplier dissemination events will be organised (3 x 60 people) • The Intellectual Outputs will be spread through at least 20 different channels and networks • Traditional media will report on the Intellectual Outputs • Strengthened exchange and cooperation between our three organisations and our respective networks As a long-term effect, we aim for higher awareness about hate speech in public space, and the discrimination and crimes against minority groups in several European countries, as well as heightened awareness and tools for how to deal with hate speech.
The objectives were to strengthen the combat against hate speech by 1) empowering youth workers to work with young immigrants and refugees, LGBTIQ+ individuals and other members of various marginalized groups to combat hate speech by developing and producing contra- and alter-narratives by constituting and developing skills and knowledge, partly through trainings and partly through an online Handbook 2) capacity building at the level of organisations and individuals through an interactive online map and mobile app to recognize, respond to and transform hate speech, to combat it by means other than legal framework.
The project “How much freedom of speech can a democracy tolerate” consisted of two main dimensions: 1) addressing and neutralizing existing hate and hateful speech in its various forms (decontamination) and aims to achieve that by 2) emphasizing the importance of micro level actions of producing contra- and alter narratives by strengthening opposition to hate speech by developing and disseminating contra- and alter-narratives. With that in mind, a handbook for youth workers and youth organisations with visual case studies was developed and tested, aiming to promote anti-discrimination stance, built on an intersectional approach. Namely, hate speech is being increasingly conflated with ‘subjective opinion’ and ‘freedom of speech’. Such conflation allows unsanctioned spread of hate speech, targeting socially vulnerable and marginalized groups. The project thus primarily aimed to build capacity in recognizing hate speech in its various forms, including hate speech in graffiti and street art, reacting to and transforming hate speech manifestations by producing contra- and alter-narratives, grounded in intersectional and anti-discrimination approach, and, secondarily, to raise awareness on the extent of hate speech, including its more subtle manifestations. As such, the project promoted an active stance towards tackling the hate speech by decontraminating it, that is, by producing contra- and alter-narratives, consisting of various word plays, aiming to neutralize existing hateful content, to expose it as ‘hateful’ (rather than a matter of neutral ‘subjective opinion’), and to provide an alternative narrative that manifests the anti-discrimination stance (i.e. hateful graffiti kill the gays is ‘decontraminated’ into kiss the gays). Hate and discriminatory speech are raising in extent due to the growing presence and institutionalization of right wing policies, right wing political movements, including various initiatives, and of growing resentment, targeting vulnerable social groups that are made into a scapegoat and a misplaced target of growing social discontent. Research, conducted by Ljubljana Pride Association (Perger, Muršec & Štefanec 2018), shows that among those LGBTIQ+ youth who have already experienced violence and/or discrimination on the grounds of gender and/or sexual identity, 92% reports experiencing ‘insulting remarks’, and 56% reports experiencing ‘insulting or hateful comments (in graffiti, publications, web pages, online comments). What these numbers show is that LGBTIQ+ youth, and by extension, vulnerable and marginalized youth in general, are in need of capacity building that would enable them to recognize, respond to and transform hate speech they are experiencing. For that, tools and skills, enabling young individuals to combat hate speech, have to be developed and appropriated. We realised these aims by skill-sharing between three organisations (Ljubljana Pride Association, the Irish Network Against Racism and Loesje e.V.) active in anti-discrimination, social inclusion and creative approaches, but focused partly on different target groups, with different scopes and experiences. Each contributed with their expertise, training youth workers and creating three high-quality Intellectual Outputs.