ComAnCE: Combat Antisemitism in Central Europe

The main goal of the ComAnCE (Combat Anti-Semitism in Central Europe) project is to present to: state authorities, police forces, researchers, as well as European institutions and organizations, the phenomenon of discrimination in the Visegrad Group countries. Precise categories and a set of indicators for types of hate speech and related crimes will be developed. This goal will be achieved through a created online survey, in which respondents from countries participating in the project will participate. Thanks to the analysis of content regarding racist crimes and hate speech in the broadly understood media, in particular in social media, the research will be embedded in the current media context.

The collected database and the results of individual analyzes will allow for the creation of a special training program on hate speech and anti-Semitic crimes for state authorities, political forces and non-governmental organizations. This program will focus primarily on identifying the problem, combating and limiting manifestations of hate speech and anti-Semitic crimes in the Visegrad Group countries. Currently, the aforementioned type of hate speech is no longer associated only and exclusively with Jews, and is also more and more often encountered on the Internet in the context of radical and extremist attitudes and statements.

The beneficiaries of the project are academics who deal with various manifestations of hate speech, political decision makers, victims of hate speech and racist crime, as well as all interested parties. The result of the ComAnCe project will be primarily an increase in the capacity and capabilities of state services and non-governmental organizations to combat hate speech using available databases and specialized training. This project also aims to strengthen cooperation between state authorities, key to the project, and non-governmental organizations. The creators of the project believe that numerous research results and special training programs will lead to a significant reduction in manifestations of hatred and anti-Semitic crime.

The aim of the online conference was to contribute to the understanding of contemporary anti-Semitism in the theoretical and practical area in the Central European region. We wanted to focus on contemporary manifestations of anti-Semitism, on their various varieties, their effects and intensity in the online environment. All panels have been designed to cover key areas related to contemporary manifestations of anti-Semitism online, such as: current manifestations of anti-Semitism in the Central European region, anti-Semitic hate speech/violence on the Internet and other forms of manifestation of anti-Semitism on the Internet, methodological limitations of the definition of anti-Semitism in the Internet sphere, targeting anti-Semitic statements, fighting and prevention.