LEAD Online

Lead-online addresses the need to strengthen critical thinking and digital & media literacy skills in young people, so as to combat the current trend that sees low level of reporting and “normalization” of hatespeech online (HSO).

LEAD Online is a 24-month project, co-funded by the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV) and run by 7 partner organizations based in Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Austria, Croatia, Greece and Cyprus.

Lead-online addresses the need to strengthen critical thinking and digital & media literacy skills in young people, so as to combat the current trend that sees low level of reporting and “normalization” of hate speech online (HSO).

The Objective

The project intends to empower youth, teachers, media and social media activists to become agents of change by:

• training them to recognize hateful discourses and underlying forms of intolerance prejudice and discrimination, using a rights-based approach;
• providing them with innovative digital tools to classify, decode and counter HSO;
• opening up spaces for discussion of HSO, promoting attitudes and behavior that respect human rights and values.

The activities

• engaging youth and target groups in self-assessment and reflection on their views, experiences and attitudes to hate speech online;
• enabling target groups to better grasp the roots of hateful speech by improving their capacity to recognize, prevent and react to hate speech online;
• Introducing innovative online learning resources on hate speech online, combining modern digital technology, user interaction, and a learning-by-doing approach;
• Improving multi-stakeholder cooperation to counter hate speech online and foster mutual learning in an international environment;
• Increasing public awareness of the polarizing effects of hate speech online and promoting informed, proactive countering actions.