A lot can happen in a year. Thatโs why markers like birthdays and anniversaries can be a great excuse to stop, take stock and celebrate all the achievements of the 12 months before.
This week marks one year since the #CharitiesAgainstHate movement was set up to bring positive change to social platforms. Harnessing the power of communications and encouraging the sector to call out online hate speech on the platforms we all rely upon to connect with our supporters has been a lesson in generating collective force to create a movement for good.
The strength and power of bringing people together behind a cause and ensuring clear effective communications are used in order to amplify one important message is truly amazing. Want proof? Just take a look at some of the positive, powerful messages the sector has been sharing in recent months under the Charities Against Hate hashtag and the comms lessons we can learn from it.
It has encouraged collaboration and sharing of resources under the banner of one message:
It has given people a collective voice to communicate the importance of something that affects us all:
It has provided a vehicle through which people can share their stories:
It has shown how having a clear message and communicating it effectively you can get political support for change:
In September 2020, of 224 charity beneficiaries who responded to a Charities Against Hate survey, 81% said had experienced hate online themselves or witnessed others being targeted. A Feb 2021 report from the Alan Turing Institute on understanding online hate states that โIn November 2020, Facebook reported for the first time that the percentage of content exposures for hate speech was 0.11%. This means that for every 1,000 times a piece of content is viewed on the platform, one of them will be hateful content.โ
Clearly, there is still much work to be done and the past year has seen the continuing work of organisations such as Kick It Out and Stop Funding Hate and campaigns such as #StopOnlineAbuse, #ReclaimSocial. As one Charities Against Hate participant said, โthis is a huge issue, one that isn’t going away, and one that lots of other people are sitting up and taking notice of โ there is a real sense that people want change.โ By continuing to collaborate and communicate their central message, Charities Against Hate is committed to continuing to work to combat online hate and support charity staff and their wider communities.
How you can get involved:
Join the collective: https://charitiesagainsthate.com/contact-us
Read and share the Guide to Best Practice in Ethical Digital Marketing & Comms Practices and Product Recommendations.
Follow on social media and join the conversation: https://twitter.com/CharityAgstHate
Join us for our next conference all about social media – Beyond the algorithm: social media for charities
If you liked this you may also like: How to #ReclaimSocial for good during a pandemic
Image: Jon Tyson on Unsplash