Digital Media Arts for an inclusive public Sphere (Digital Maps)

The overall goal of this project is to contribute to the promotion of public knowledge of youth and social media users about the differences between freedom of opinion and expression and hate speech and incitement to violence, by defining action strategies.

The project, which is implemented in partnership with All Youth Jordan Commission and funded by the British Council, aims to achieve the following specific objectives:

1.     To increase the tolerance of young Jordanians on social media towards differing opinions and beliefs via convoying the fundamentality of freedom of expression as a civil right and the imperative to exercise it responsibly, with understanding of the difference between it and hate speech.

2.     To encourage youth to conduct their speech on social media according to the responsibilities implied in the civil right of freedom of expression and to engage in neither hate speech nor incitement to violence.

The expected outcomes of the project are as follows:

1.    University students from 4 universities in Amman, Madaba, Irbid, and Zarqaa have participated in dialogue discussions about how hate speech contributes to deepening divisions in society, and they have contributed to raising the awareness of their colleagues about the importance of combating hate speech and addressing it through social media platforms.

2.     Youth have increased awareness of their responsibilities and obligations around the use of their freedom of speech.

3.     Young social media users have increased their commitment to call out and report hate speech on social media platforms and in their lives.

4.     The space for hate speech on social media platforms has tightened.

5.     Dialogue in public and on social media about the issue of hate speech has been reenergized.

6.     Young social media users have tolerance for diverse opinions and willingness to hear them out.

7.     Through production of the final report, the amount of publicly available data regarding hate speech on social media, including the rate of youth understanding of free speech versus hate speech, support for fighting hate speech, characteristics and types of hate speech, effectiveness of measures to combat it, and potential future action strategies, has increased.