The kNOwHATE project launched the campaign #CortarOMalPelaRaiz, which includes a booklet and a flyer aimed at informing Portuguese society about what online hate speech is, how it materializes and how we can tackle it. The initiative, funded by the European Union, presents the main results of in-depth research on the subject.
Using an innovative and interdisciplinary approach, kNOwHATE analyzed thousands of comments written in Portuguese retrieved from the social platforms Twitter/X and YouTube, which were then used to train artificial intelligence models capable of automatically detecting hate speech. The booklet, written in clear and accessible language, explores the main results of kNOwHATE, highlighting the social psychological and linguistic characteristics of this type of speech, revealing its nuances and complexities, and what characterizes hate speech against migrant, racialized and LGBTI+ communities in Portugal. The 2-page flyer focuses on strategies and actions to fight hate speech, aiming to inform and raise awareness of this issue in Portuguese society.
"The aim is to offer a practical guide for educators, media literacy specialists, legislators and civil society in general...we want people to understand the nature of the problem and have the tools to identify and tackle hate speech in its various forms," says Rita Guerra, the project's coordinator.
In addition to the brochure and flyer, the campaign #CortarOMalPelaRaiz also includes a series of 4 podcasts, and a short video to be released soon, specially created for dissemination on social media.
You can download the brochure and flyer here.