How to intervene in acts of hatred
There is no quick and easy solution for preventing and intervening in acts of hatred. Instead, it requires long-term efforts. Below are instructions for different situations.
Video: The missing factor. Let’s intervene in discrimination and acts of hatred together.
In everyday life
You can promote a discussion atmosphere that involves listening and interacting in your everyday life. Be conscious of your prejudices and language use. Intervene in discrimination, offensive jokes and other disrespectful behaviour.
Online
- Support an atmosphere for discussion that involves listening and interacting with others. Do not post or share hateful comments. Think about which themes you want to give visibility on social media.
- Check facts. Misinformation is both intentionally and unintentionally spread online. You can use search engines and fact-checking tools to check the reliability of content.
- Be cautious about the material displayed to you. Artificial intelligence can be used to create images and videos that appear genuine.
- Report a hateful post to the service administrator. If you suspect that a criminal offence is taking place, collect the evidence and report the offence before you ask the administrator to delete the message.
In organisations and educational institutions
- Increase your awareness of hate-motivated acts and their effects. Find out any problem areas in your organisation. Intervene in discrimination on a long-term basis through equality planning. Include the prevention of hate-motivated acts and intervening in them in your equality plan or security plan.
- Provide clear information about who a person encountering a hate-motivated act can turn to.
- Organise training on non-discrimination and the promotion of equality.
- Communicate that discrimination is taken seriously. Try to strengthen your capacity to intervene in discrimination, harassment and hate speech. There must be clear instructions for situations involving discrimination and harassment that the entire organisation is aware of.
- Intervene in hate speech on your social media platforms.
- Intervene in discrimination on a long-term basis through equality planning. Include the prevention of hate-motivated acts and intervening in them in your equality plan or security plan.
All these measures can be included in the equality plan of the organisation or educational institution.