Youth mobilize to curb disinformation and hate speech | All media content | DW | 12.09.2023
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Latin America

Youth mobilize to curb disinformation and hate speech

In Bolivia, students, families and teachers meet to identify risks lurking on the Internet and devise ways to disarm threats such as disinformation and hate speech, with the help of CEPRA.

"I was playing online when I made a virtual friend, but it turned out not to be the person I thought it was. Pedophile alert!" is how Eva, a Bolivian teenager, describes her bad experience on the Internet.

She is one of the more than 50 participants in the Ideathon on Media Competencies, an event organized by the Center for Radio Production CEPRA, DW Akademie's partner in Bolivia. The Ideathon brought together students, family members and teachers from educational units in Cochabamba and Chuquisaca.   

This event is CEPRA's first step in identifying risks that new communication technologies and the Internet pose to young people. This mapping can help prepare them against threats such as disinformation and hate speech.  

"Once we validate the process, we will share these methodologies so that anyone interested in fighting disinformation and hate speech can use them and continue to share information on media competencies," said Luis Salazar, coordinator of the Colaboratorio project, a joint initiative of CEPRA and DW Akademie that promotes media competence and youth participation in community media, and in which this ideathon is framed. 

 

CEPRA is a strategic partner of DW Akademie in Bolivia. Since 2023, the joint work focuses on fostering media skills among youth, based on the joint project Colaboratorio, which promotes the participation of young people in community media. The work between DW Akademie and its partners in Bolivia, CEPRA and Muy Waso, aims to sensitize local journalists, students and youth against hate speech and misinformation, and thus prepare them to engage in constructive public discourse. This joint work is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).