Foreword

Manifestations of racism (religious, racial or ethnic), xenophobia and other forms of discrimination based on intolerance have increased at an alarming rate with the rise of the internet and social networks allowing frustration and anger to be expressed as never before. Furthermore, the spread of fake news and disinformation campaigns on social networks have the effect of fuelling hatred and intolerance, and represent a threat to the European values of democracy and freedom.

In response, young people can play and already do play a leading role in promoting a society that is more tolerant and multicultural. Local authorities have thus an important asset in their local youth, who they can mobilise to locally counter discrimination and extremist speech. On the one hand, the aim is to increase the number of messages in the virtual space that promote fundamental rights and democratic values, and on the other hand, to strengthen the resilience of citizens, especially young people, to hate and/or extremist speech. However, local authorities do not always have the skills and means to efficiently mobilise civil society in the digital space. Efus developed and implemented the LOUD project, with the support of the European Union's Erasmus+ programme, to reinforce local authorities’ capacities to mobilise young people in preventing discriminatory violence in the digital space. The main objectives of the project were to give local authorities concrete tools to mobilise young citizens to produce alternative narrative campaigns that are both online, therefore accessible to all, and local, therefore rooted in practical reality. In this sense, this project illustrates a well-known adage that perfectly sums up Efus' positioning: think globally, act locally.

LOUD follows on from previous European projects developed and run by Efus to strengthen social cohesion and prevent discrimination, the most recent of which are MATCH-SPORT (Make Amateur Sport Tolerant by Eliminating Racism and Discrimination), BRIDGE (Building Resilience to Reduce Polarisation and Growing Extremism) JUST (Just and Safer Cities for All), and Local Voices (Local Communication Strategies to Prevent Extremism). We hope you will find this publication interesting and that it will inspire you to renew or expand your existing schemes, or start new ones. We encourage you to share your practices with Efus, as they can in turn inspire other local and regional European authorities.

Elizabeth Johnston Efus Executive Director