Lukáš Houdek, Coordinator of HateFree Culture, the Czech Campaign Against Hate Crime. HateFree Culture is a nation-wide campaign against racism and hate violence organized by the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic. The target group of the project is youth of age 15-25. Therefore the campaign is run mostly online. It is based on daily contact with the community via social networks. www.hatefree.cz www.facebook.com/HateFreeCulture

1. HateFree Culture
the usage of social media in national campaign against rasism and
hate violence for youth
Lukáš Houdek, coordinator
Office of the Government of the Czech Republic
lukas@hatefree.cz ; +420 604 463 676

2. Social media and their role in HateFree
Culture
Facebook (13.500 fans; reach 30.000 per day), Twitter (350 followers) - Facebook
is the central point of the project.
The most important thing is to be constantly active and share interesting content
(in ideal case our own content)
• Sharing of our own content (articles, comics, videos, memes, analyses,
proving hoaxes false etc.)
• Sharing content of the others (what is happenning at the moment regarding
our topics worldwide, content of other initiatives or partners)
• Constant communication with the community (via comments or messages)

3. Own content sharing and its popularity
• VIDEOS
We shoot most of our activities and share it with our fans. Therefore we share
most often:
• Spots (promoting our campaigns and open calls)
• Videos from HateFree Zones
• Shots of performances (Stand-up comedies, read trolling etc.)
• ARTICLES
Articles which deal with contemporary issues or those that prove hoaxes against
Roma or muslims false are the most popular. These are also shared the most.
Stories about victims of hate violence or positive examples are also popular.
• PHOTO CAMPAIGNS
Photo campaigns are one of the most popular and successful contents for FB likes
and sharing. Young people love to be photographed and share their photos with
their friends. People also like to look at photos of strangers.
The most successful are those that are funny or socially important

4. Videos
TV spots with viral potential Videos from HateFree Zones (with a challenge)
Shots of live performances Making ofs

5. Photo campaigns

6. Fans and increase in visibility
• To get new fans through unpopular topics is very hard (most of the society
think of attempts to change the thinking of people as propaganda), but not
impossible. The most important thing is to produce as cool and interesting
content as possible, so that people share it, comment and like it (only then it
will reach their friends and contacts and you will reach people out of your
social buble).
1. Funny content
2. Content that concerns fans themselves (photo campaigns etc.)
3. Strong stories or positive examples (people don‘t want to hear negative stories
or moralities. Positive examples are the most shared)
4. Open calls / crowdsourcing (cooperation, ideas, competition, etc.)
5. Networking – cooperation with festivals or other organisations. Make the
cooperation public.
6. FB promotion

7. Communication with the users
• We communicate with fans as much as possible – via regular comments
under posts or via messages (they consult with us their problems or ideas)
• We always try to be emphatic, never use labels for debaters (such as
racist, nazi, homophob etc.), never call them bad names.
• We have codex for discussion – if the users break it, we delete their
comments or block them if they break the rules repeatedly. Blocking users
has to be reasonable and has to be the last step when none of the
previous warnings worked.
• It is important to show and accept your own mistakes, appologize etc. Be
as transparent as possible. Never try to hide (delete) some post that
became controversial.
• HATERS - their only aim is to irritate people, to communicate their
frustrations and hate others. Even though they make the time spent on
the page very irritating for others, they are important as they increase
your visibility. Better than using hate speech against them is to send them
love (heart emoticons), kisses or funny pictures to show how silly their
comments are.