Tackling online hate speech with the involvement of targeted groups. The methodological proposal of the project REASON – REAct in the Struggle against ONline hate speech

This article analyses the project "REASON - REAct in the Struggle against ONline hate speech", which aims to counter online hate speech from a methodological point of view, drawing attention to the training actions of the Research Center on Intercultural Relations of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. The project involves young activists that belong to targeted groups (Jews, Roma and Sinti, Muslims), who focus on hate speech detection, counter-narratives and alternative narratives. In the first part of the article, the concept of “hate online” is discussed as “ambiguous yet useful” and it is presented a proposal that categorizes the forms of Antisemitism, Antigypsyism and Islamophobia. In the second part of the paper, the training workshops carried out with young people from targeted groups are analyzed as a proposal for participation and digital activism and are divided\r\ninto different phases: I) the training on all the forms of hate speech and their validation carried out with the activists; II) the collection of data and the analysis of case studies; III) the design of online hate speech counter-narrative and alternative narration; IIII) the production of social web videos.