Facebook recently announced the launch of The Resiliency Initiative website, a partnership between Facebook and The Asia Foundation to combat hate and intolerance online.
The Resiliency Initiative aims to promote tolerance, strengthen interfaith and inter-ethnic understanding, and counter violent extremism in Asia Pacific. It provides training and resources to help develop the social media capability of civil society organizations in the region – primarily focusing on groups working in areas affected by violent conflict.
This community-centered initiative began with online workshops for 60 organizations from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Pakistan and the Philippines. The website is the next step in strengthening the community of practice.
The Resiliency Initiative website provides civil society organizations with a suite of tools and resources to help them harness social media to build stronger communities. It includes guidance on getting started on social media, creating effective online content, managing their presence on social media, measuring impact, and combating misinformation, as well as case studies with insights from communities across the region. The website is currently available in English and is launching in Bengali, Thai and Urdu in the coming weeks, with more languages to follow in the future.
In the second half of this year, The Resiliency Initiative will work with civil society organizations in the Asia Pacific to build out their social resilience campaigns to combat hate online, and expand the reach of the program into new communities in the region. We’re also looking at partnering with expert consultants on a digital storytelling training program to strengthen social resilience against hate and intolerance.
The Asia Foundation is a nonprofit international development organization committed to improving lives in Asia. Violence and conflict present enormous challenges for society and can significantly hinder growth and development in the region. The Foundation works with a diverse range of grassroots organizations aligned with policy-level actions and partnerships — which is why The Resiliency Initiative is so important.
“At Facebook, we aim to identify and remove harmful content from our platforms as quickly as possible – and we’ve made good progress in this area. But this is just one part of the solution. It’s equally important to enable constructive dialogue and encourage counter speech in order to promote social cohesion and counter offline harm. We are pleased to have launched The Resiliency Initiative in partnership with The Asia Foundation as one of our flagship programs to address hate and violent extremism,” Facebook said in a press statement.
