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Report On a One Month Hatespeech Campaign By The Cameroon Community Media Network CCMN Sponsored By #defyhatenow
Report On a One Month Hatespeech Campaign By The Cameroon Community Media Network CCMN
Sponsored By #defyhatenow
5/04/2021
The Campaign effectively started on the 15th of March 2021. Proposed by The Cameroon Community Media Network (CCMN)
Duration: One Month
Methodology: Every day, internet users encounter hateful and dangerous speech online, and some of them choose to respond directly in order to refute or undermine it. Online community education and mobilization campaigns using texts, graphics and video have proven to be effective in countering hate speech online. The most direct way it can succeed is to have a positive effect on the speaker, convincing him or her to stop speaking dangerously now and in the future. It can also succeed by having an impact on the audience – either by communicating norms that make Dangerous Speech socially unacceptable or by ‘inoculating’ the audience against the speech so they are less easily influenced by it.
Strategy: When people cannot verify or refute rumors, and cannot access alternative narratives or trustworthy counter speech, there is an increased likelihood that these rumors will become Dangerous Speech. Counter speech is any direct response to hateful or harmful speech which seeks to undermine it. Just as influential speakers can make violence seem acceptable and necessary, they can also favorably influence discourse through counter speech. Our project aims at combating hate speech through counter speech. We will engage social media influencers to run series of online campaigns aimed at countering hate speech through mass dissemination of tailored and targeted online counter speech texts, graphics and video messages.
Implementation: The Campaign previewed for one month, went on for over 2months (8weeks) on social media, via our media handles- Facebook, Twitter linked to our website as well as whatsApp media platforms. We were able to reach out to over 13000 people on facebook, over 6000 persons on Twitter and over 3500 persons via different WhatsApp platforms.
Deliverables: We produced short videos in English and French to raise awareness against hatespeech,we also in same line produced graphics in both languages and ensures mass dissemination in all the social media handles indicated above. Various chapters within the network took it from the online space to traditional and digital media spaces through panel discussions and news items to further amplify the actions of the CCMN against hatespeech.
In a nutshell, it was a successful outing, as followers appreciated the content and collective action by the CCMN especially with content produced in both languages and even one of the short videos to make it more inclusive and community based. We wish to appreciate the funders for the support which we struggled to manage and couldn’t meet up with the expenses, however, we got to the finish line and was motivated by the feedback and decided to go in for an extra one month. We will be looking forward to more engagements from the sponsor #defyhatenow as we promised to double our efforts in subsequent partnerships.
on behalf of CCMN
Rosaline Obah
National Coordinator
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