Social media is an unregulated space and sometimes the only source for its primary users, the youth. Many young people in Sri Lanka are not tech-savvy and have low digital literacy, resulting in the inability to identify fake news or become vulnerable to scams. Within the youth category, women are more susceptible to hate-related attacks.

Against this background, UNDP worked with civil society organization Search For Common Ground (SFCG) to respond to gendered dimensions of violent extremism through empowering young women to fight online hate speech. SFCG implemented the initiative ‘Women in Technology - Countering Hate Speech’ to build the capacity of young women in identifying and countering online hate speech.  

The beneficiaries of the SFCG initiative were young women ages 18-29 from Ampara, Batticaloa, Kurunegala, and Puttalam. Participants were selected based on their membership in youth civil society groups, leadership roles in the community, and interest in engaging in peacebuilding initiatives.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the trainings conducted by SFCG were organised virtually as interactive online sessions. The project comprised three stages - establishing safe spaces, capacity development, and coaching and mentoring.  

In the first stage, Facebook and WhatsApp groups allowed emerging women leaders to connect and network with social media experts and mentors. These platforms were open to all communities irrespective of ethnicity, religion, gender, identity, sexual orientation, or disabilities and were vital for collaboration and interactive learning. In the next stage the participants took part in training sessions on digital security citizen journalism, identifying, countering, and reporting hate speech and digital advocacy through the use of simple online creative tools. In the final stage the participants developed their own social media products such as memes, artwork banners posters, among others to counter hate speech.

A cross-district networking program allowed the participants to gain an alternative perspective from other multi-ethnic communities. A toolkit on identifying and countering online hate speech was also developed by SFCG to accompany the trainings, the toolkit includes modules on gendered hate speech and conducting digital advocacy campaigns. . Produced in Sinhala, Tamil, and English, these new toolkits are now available to all young women, government stakeholders, educational institutes, and community-based organisations.

 With these toolkits and digital platforms in place, young women leaders have the knowledge, skill, and competencies required to combat online hate speech successfully in the present and in the future.