“Before I took part in the training, my family members were also afraid to use social media. I shared all the relevant information from the training with my parents and siblings. They were using one password for all social media accounts. The trainers advised us to use different passwords for different online accounts and I got my family members to follow this advice. Now my family members are also active on social media after increasing online security of their social media accounts upon my intervention.

I wasn’t very active on my Facebook account because I was afraid of facing hate speech or harassment like a lot of my women friends and peers do. I had no idea what to do if I became the target of hate speech. When I came to the training, my awareness about digital advocacy was minimal. The training made me realise how digital advocacy can be applied to address not just hate speech online, but a lot of other issues such as gender-based violence, domestic violence, and other issues that women face in our communities.

Our Young Women Leaders group discussed how to use digital advocacy to raise awareness and carry out small campaigns about such issues. We should not be confined to our homes as the patriarchy of our families expect us to. They think men are more skilled than women. I believe women should have equal access to share their views in different private and public spaces. Social media is one such place. Unfortunately, women face a lot of verbal abuse, hate speech and harassment on social media.

After the training, I am more alert about social media content than I was before. I read social media posts very carefully to check if any hate speech or abuse is contained in what people post and share. I am equipped with the information and awareness to respond, report, and counter hate speech.

I was also prepared by the training to use digital storytelling to report about hate speech victims and related issues. Myself and five other trained Young Women Leaders utilized our storytelling skills in preparing a video and poster on hate speech and violence against women. We shared those two media products in the We-gital SHEROES Facebook group, the private group created by Search to allow all participants to share information relevant to hate speech and communicate with each other about common issues and interests. We are planning to organize screenings for local women’s groups and community groups after Covid-19 related travel restrictions have been lifted. We would like to host online screenings as well. But our group will need further assistance to organize online screenings.

Fortunately, I hadn’t faced any online hate speech before the training perhaps because I was hardly active on social media. I now have the confidence and information to act on hate speech experiences whether it is personal or somebody else’s.

My improved understanding of hate speech became very useful recently when a friend was harassed by a male friend. I assisted her to handle the situation by giving her necessary guidance and advice. The problem was resolved after she followed my advice and got her family to speak to his family. Since the two families knew each other, it was the best way to address the problem with minimal damage. I hear and encounter similar incidents very regularly where young women become victims of abuse and hate speech on social media by their former boyfriends. This is one reason why I believe that the training on hate speech online is very relevant to young women in the Ampara district. We have to equip other young women with necessary awareness and tools to deal with hate speech they encounter online.”