BanHate

BanHate is the first mobile app enabling users to easily report hate speech occurring online, in times when fear-mongering and post-truth politics poison the public sphere. The four core areas include: reporting hate posts, monitoring reported posts via colour-coded up-dates, an educational mission statement and organizational profile. BanHate aims to create a strong sense of community as people collectively oppose hate speech on social media and feel the impact of their actions.

The attractive user interface is designed for simple five-step reporting. A registration process guards against misuse, maintaining reporter anonymity. Organizational info ensures full transparency. Users may share activities on facebook, but not the hate-post. Info pages sensitize users to discrimination, showing existing forms – sexual orientation, social status, disability, sex/gender, ethnicity, age, political opinion and religion – raising awareness of the impact of hate speech on society and of the importance of reporting. Scaling up from the local to the European level will offer lasting social impact. A clear winner.

Jury Evaluation:

“In times where populist movements poison us with fear, sweet anger and post-truth politics, especially via online communication platforms, and cause division and hate within our society, BanHate addresses this major problem in the best possible manner. Their extremely user-friendly mobile application provides an attractive, interactive and high quality platform for citizens to develop a bottom-up counter-movement to online hate speech. Additionally, with their business model the project has potential to scale up quickly and expand from the local up to the European level with a lasting social impact. It fulfils every criterion in the Active Citizenship category to its fullest and is therefore a clear winner.” – EYA Grand Jury Report