A workshop organized by the Defyhatenow Civic Watch in Douala on May 4, 2023 was an opportunity to ask online content creators to review the effects of their content before publication.
The facilitators who spoke during the workshop said that many media professionals found themselves spreading hate speech, sometimes without knowing it, because they did not take the time to verify the facts or think about the effects.
Kinang Derick Fai, conflict research coordinator and administrative coordinator of Defyhatenow, said that the Douala session aimed to bring together media professionals so that they could talk about responsible use of social media. “We wanted to look each other in the eye and critically examine some of our publications,” he said.
“We wanted to see between us if there was a better way to produce this content responsibly without violating the community standards of the different platforms we use,” added the coordinator. He noted that the Defyhatenow project is organised in collaboration with Meta, which is why they decided to study online platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as Twitter and Tik Tok among others. “We wanted to see how these platforms are used by these different content creators and influencers,” said the host.
Participants were encouraged to avoid making publications because they want to please subscribers or simply because they want to put food on their table. “We must not do things the wrong way,” they said.
Content creators have been invited to be peace builders and people who use digital space to build a better society.
