Braving the Backlash - Event and white paper

Empowering brands to stand up against hate publicly Hate on social media is a growing problem, and one that’s being largely ignored by the industry. Even brands that claim to support diversity are alarmingly quiet on the issue of online hate. I oversaw a thought-leadership project for We Are Social to help brands publicly stand up against hate, instead of simply deleting or hiding it. Sweeping the problem under the carpet does not make the problem go away, especially for the communities that are being attacked. After an extensive research phase the white paper launched with a talk at Cannes, led by Ray Murphy and Mobbie Nazir. In September 2018, I chaired a panel with Susie Hanlon, COO at The Mandy Network; Kate Dale, head of campaign strategy (This Girl Can) at Sport England; Iain Walters, director of marketing at Pride in London; and Matt Scarff, director of ITV creative & ITV experiences at ITV and co-chair of ITV Pride, to coincide with the publication of the 'Braving the Backlash' report. The report covers why all brands need an anti-hate policy, how to create one, and where to display it. The report also introduces a proprietary ‘Three Rs Model’ to help brands and community managers successfully categorise and respond to hate speech online. The report is available to download here https://bravingthebacklash.wearesocial.com/