No Hate Speech Movement - A Council of Europe Youth Campaign for Human Rights Online

Young People Combating Hate Speech Online is a project being run by the Council of Europe’s youth sector between 2012 and 2014. It aims to combat racism and discrimination, as expressed online as hate speech, by mobilizing young people and youth organisations to recognise and act against such human rights violations. The project is a tribute to youth participation and co-management. It was initiated by the youth representatives in the Joint Council on Youth, the committee which brings together youth leaders belonging of the Advisory Council on Youth and the governmental youth representatives of the European Steering Committee on Youth. The project is therefore being carried out by young people with the support of governmental youth institutions.

A campaign for human rights online

The campaign is not designed to limit freedom of expression online. Neither is it about everyone being nice to each other online. It is against hate speech online in all its forms, including those that most affect young people, such as cyber-bullying and cyber-hate. The campaign focuses on human rights education, youth participation and media literacy.

A Multi-Faceted Campaign

The goals of the campaign are:

• To raise awareness about hate speech online and the risks it poses for democracy and individual young people.
• To promote media and Internet literacy.
• To support young people in standing up for human rights, online and offline.
• To reduce the levels of acceptance of online hate speech.
• To mobilise, train and create a network of online youth activists to defend human rights.
• To map hate speech online and develop tools to combat it.
• To support and show solidarity to people and groups targeted by hate speech online.
• To advocate the development of and consensus on European policy instruments combating hate speech.
• To develop youth participation and citizenship online.

Although based online, the campaign will also have important offline elements and activities like training courses, seminars, conferences, youth events, festivals and flashmobs. Local and linguistic differences are very important; so the online campaign has been designed to allow for national, cultural and linguistic diversity. All aspects of hate speech should be considered when analysing the problem and taking action so that motivation, content, tone, context, targets, and the potential implications of hate speech are taken into account. The campaign will highlight the importance of involving school communities as well as non-formal education and youth work.