#Defyhatenow

#Defyhatenow is an anti-hatred organization that was founded in early 2014 by r0g_agency, a Berlin-based NGO that supports peacebuilding efforts in the majority world. Operating in Cameroon, Ethiopia, and South Sudan, #Defyhatenow trains citizens and community based organizations to become “positive influencers” through counterspeech, fact-checking, peacebuilding, education, and social media monitoring.

Since the group operates in several countries at war, its work illustrates how conflict affects the possibilities for counterspeech, and its tone. For instance the Cameroonian branch was started in 2018 as a response to hateful and dangerous speech circulating on social media related to the “Anglophone Crisis” in Cameroon – a conflict between French-speaking government forces and separatists from the English-speaking regions of the country fighting to form their own nation. 

To protect the safety of counterspeakers, therefore, they are encouraged to produce content that is “very objective and general in its character. The information responds to the issue at hand without responding to the individual,” according to one of #Defyhatenow’s staff members in Cameroon.

As an example, he described how #Defyhatenow encouraged people to post an image to their social media accounts with their picture framed by two blue doves and the words, “I stand for peace and a #hatefreeCameroon.” These comments would be understood as counterspeech by those within the context due to the fact that they were posted close in time to the speech to which they are responding, even though the specific content does not link the hateful / dangerous speech with the counterspeech. Another risk-mitigation strategy used by #Defyhatenow is to respond to hatred under the name of the organization, to protect individual staff and members from attack.