This 30-month project strives to encourage young people to combat discrimination and religious intolerance in Europe. This new phase builds on Get the Trolls Out!’s existing track record in monitoring online hate speech and using the findings to challenge the perpetrators or debunk inflammatory rhetoric. It delivers social media-based campaigns to promote key messaging and help build a healthier environment online.
Led by the Media Diversity Institute (MDI) and working with partners across Europe, Get The Trolls Out! counters anti-religious hate speech through exposing individuals and organisations, finding and debunking dangerous narratives in the media, and educating young people how to spot and respond to online trolls.
Project objectives:
- To empower civil society organizations across Europe to identify and highlight intolerance and xenophobia targeting minority communities including Jewish and Muslim, and Christian communities.
- To challenge stereotypes, debunk extremist mythology and shape public opinion by developing inclusive content and leveraging traditional and new media platforms.
- To consolidate and extend the network of human rights defenders and young activists committed to stemming the rise of intolerance and discrimination in Europe.
Key Activities:
- Media Monitoring: Monitoring of traditional and new media uncovers and anti-religious speech and discourses by public and other figures.
- Mechanisms to Publicise Complaints: When project’s monitoring efforts detect anti-religious speech and discourses in the media, the partners expose and counter them using the most appropriate mechanisms, such as articles and blog posts, letters and meetings to editors and heads of policy.
- Content Production: Videos, articles, and podcasts challenge stereotypes, debunk antisemitic and anti-Muslim narratives and give voice to personal testimonies and experiences, contributing to a wider awareness and understanding of hate speech.
- Social Media Strategy: A project-dedicated website and social media platforms are the key of the campaign, while the program partners use their websites, Facebook and Twitter pages to push out the program’s media products and launch discussion and conversation about combating anti-religious hate.
- Collaboration with CSO-led initiatives: By sharing media monitoring findings, holding workshops, and implementing joint activities with other CSOs across Europe, the programme is committed to empower civil society to identify and effectively counter xenophobia and hate speech.
- Direct engagement with media outlets: Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE), involves its members in producing audio-visual content such as podcasts, features and short videos that address incidents of anti-religious hate speech.
Region/Country: Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, UK
Timeframe/dates: 2020 – 2023
Partners: European Network on Religion and Belief (ENORB), Ligue Internationale Contre le Racisme et l’Antisémitisme (Licra), Amadeu Antonio Stiftung (AAS), European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS), KARPOS, The Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ), and Never Again Association.
Website: For more information on the project visit its website: https://getthetrollsout.org/
