Today ISD CEO Sasha Havlicek and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, announced the launch of the Online Civil Courage Initiative (OCCI) in the UK. At the launch event in London, Sandberg thanked ISD for its role as the anchor partner developing this counterspeech machinery to tackle online extremism and hate speech at scale. They were also joined at the launch by key UK partners:
- Brendan Cox, Jo Cox Foundation
- Mark Gardner, Community Security Trust
- Fiyaz Mughal, Tell MAMA
- Shaukat Warraich, Imams Online
Sasha Havlicek, CEO of ISD (Institute for Strategic Dialogue) said: "This is a critical time to amplify credible British voices against extremism and hatred. The OCCI provides a unique machine that mobilises innovative technology together with expert knowledge from across the marketing, communications, and academic sectors to upscale the civic response to this challenge. Together, we can build a proportional and effective response to the increasingly sophisticated online strategies of the extremists."
The initiative has already been successfully launched in Germany in November last year and France in March 2017. In just a few months, the OCCI has already engaged and trained over 100 NGOs and reached over 4.3 million people, delivering credible content to compete with extremist narratives.
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The OCCI will deliver scaled impact through the following:
- The OCCI Help Desk is available to NGOs conducting counterspeech campaigns in Germany, France and the UK, and connects practitioners with experts able to answer questions and provide guidance on how to develop, manage and measure effective counterspeech. It helps to close the gap in production, marketing, data, partnerships and technology.
- The OCCI Insight Reports equip NGO partners on an ongoing basis, with the knowledge needed to develop effective, targeted campaigns. Without access to in-depth, data-driven insights into the fast evolving landscape of extremist and terrorist propaganda, narratives and networks, it is impossible to mount a proportional targeted response.
- The OCCI Community consists initially of regionally tailored closed Facebook Groups. The Online Civil Courage Initiative provides a secure and collaborative online space for organisations and activists to share their campaigns, experiences, advice and challenges with like-minded and similarly inspirational people.
- The OCCI in-kind Facebook advertising grants support NGOs conducting counterspeech campaigns in Germany, France and the UK. The grants are accompanied by guidance on the development, production, dissemination, management and evaluation of the campaigns, increasing their potential reach and impact.
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Read Sheryl Sandberg’s Facebook post about the Online Civil Courage Initiative here.
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Click here to read about the Online Civil Courage Initiative UK launch in Wired.
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