The social network launched on Monday in Berlin its Online Civil Courage Initiative, which is created to stamp out hateful rhetoric within its own walls, as well as influence the wider Internet.
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As part of the campaign announced by Facebook, an amount of more than 1 million euros (approximately $1.09 million) has been pledged by the company for supporting non-governmental organizations in their efforts to wipe out racist and xenophobic posts on the social network.
In November, prosecutors in Hamburg began investigating Facebook for not doing enough to prevent the dissemination of hate speech, according to Reuters. “With this new initiative, we are convinced to better understand and respond to the challenges of extremist speech on the internet”.
The initiative will also bring together experts from the field of fighting violent extremism, to jointly to develop Best Practice examples, which are then provided to NGOs, governments and other online services available.
Facebook is putting its blue and white foot down when it comes to extremism and hate speech in Europe. On Friday, the company informed users that it has hired a unit of the publisher Bertelsmann to monitor and delete racist posts on its German platform. It is already common knowledge that Facebook is strongly against harassment, bullying, and the use of threats against other users on the platform or persons elsewhere, stating so in its terms. The company faced similar accusations of censorship last month when CEO Mark Zuckerberg vowed to fight to protect Muslim rights on Facebook.
The OCCI has already started to crowd-source methods of solving the issue of online hate speech, sharing the hashtag #civilcourage as its rallying cry.
Building people’s confidence so that they are willing to counter hate speech is essential to tackling Islamophobia, said a spokeswoman for Tell Mama, a United Kingdom group that tracks anti-Muslim attacks.
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“Love is louder than hate”. “Counter Speech is incredibly strong – and it takes time, energy and courage”.
