On July 17, 2018, Facebook hosted the Peer to Peer (P2P) Global Digital Challenge final competition in Washington, DC. The P2P program is a Facebook sponsored global counterspeech campaign that provides university students with modest resources to make a measurable impact on their community over the course of a university semester.
NHMC attended to learn how the P2P program engages people on a global scale to join the anti-hate movement. Facebook’s partner organization, EdVenture Partners, described the counterspeach mission as “a global problem with local solutions.” Students from Belgium, Nigeria, and Turkey developed impressive ideas and created a digital footprint in their respective communities.
The finalist of the S18 Facebook P2P challenge included KU Leuven team from Belgium with a counter intolerance campaign. The Middle East Technical University traveled from Turkey and developed a women’s rights campaign. Students from the University of Lagos in Nigeria created a social awareness campaign to integrate people from the slums. What these passionate students were able to achieve with only a $1,000 budget and $750 in Facebook advertising credits is a template for what Facebook could do with exponential resources. Their presentations were also a humbling reminder that small actions can have a lasting impact on our communities.
