Counterspeech efforts in the United States of America

Countering extremist ideology by promoting tolerance

Inkblot is a student-led initiative that educates the public about the evolving issue of violent extremism. It is part of a worldwide effort to disrupt and discredit messages promoting violence and hate in our communities. By hosting public events featuring renowned experts and former violent extremists, the team behind Inkblot hopes to engage people in ongoing discussions on tolerance, diversity, and social support within smaller community units. The campaign's goal is to create an inkblot that will counter the spread of violent extremist ideologies.

Want to learn more? Check out the Inkblot Facebook page.

Overcoming stereotypes by challenging beliefs

This campaign used social media to encourage people to recognize and challenge their own beliefs. It also pushed people to build personal connections to help them overcome ignorance and stereotypes and, ultimately, defy extremism. The team behind uDefy encouraged participants to take their four-step pledge: 1) face your truth, 2) get the facts, 3) commit to defy, and 4) spread the word. The campaign gained endorsements from a wide range of leadership at the University of Central Oklahoma, including the president and provost.

Want to learn more? Check out the uDefy Facebook page.

Learning effective counterspeech communication through training sessions

This training focused on the basics of effective communication and marketing. The event was a joint initiative with Facebook CMO, Gary Briggs, and members of the US Marketing College, and included 59 representatives from NGOs and government organizations in the United States.

The Marketing College faculty created the training curriculum for NGOs with sessions on Digital Marketing, Understanding Your Audience, Persuasion, Youth Marketing, Crisis Marketing, and the ABCDEs of Communication Strategy. Facebook experts also presented on Facebook Best Practices for creating effective counterspeech and provided an overview of our content policies and global counterspeech efforts.

Representing organizations that focus on a range of issues including women's safety, LGBTQ+ rights, Civil Rights, and countering Anti-Semitism and Islamaphobia, the groups brought diverse perspectives to the conversations we had over the two days of the training. The participants not only appreciated the opportunity to meet NGOs working in different fields, but also valued the depth of the trainings and ability to work on their ideas.