Your response to the persons responding critically to your campaign largely depends on your relationship with them. Consequently, you have to differentiate between different groups.

As a general rule of thumb: As long as the criticism is constructive, you should appreciate it. You do not have to accept or agree with it, but should be open for a discussion and dialogue. It might be a learning opportunity and allows you to switch perspectives.

However, especially online, feedback might not always constructive. Below you can find some recommendations when face with criticism and hate speech.

 How to interact with...

 

Family and friends

Once you tell your family and friends about your planned campaign, they surely will have an opinion. Ideally, your closest network will be supportive and even might get actively involved in your campaign. However, in some cases, they might oppose your efforts – sometimes even with harsh language.

First of all: Discussions with the people close to you will never be easy, especially when you have opposing viewpoints. Though understandable, you should, nonetheless, not try to avoid them.

Instead of calling them out in front of other family members or friends, take them aside and speak directly with them. Use I-statements: So instead of calling someone out as racist, tell them how you are feeling. Try to be empathetic and see where they are coming from.

 Amnesty International: How to tell someone you love that they’re being racist

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Acquaintances and colleagues

Dealing with co-workers or acquaintances, either on social media or directly, can be awkward and messy. Most of the times, people tend to overlook or ignore uncomfortable comments since they can avoid the persons making them. Nonetheless, it might be worth it to confront them.

Similar to dealing with family and friends, calling someone out, either on social media or in the office, is not ideal. You can either give your colleague or acquaintance the benefit of the doubt and ask for further clarification. Asking questions might further trigger the person to reflect on what was just said. Or ask for a one-on-one talk.

Especially in the workplace, you do not have to accept hateful and racist behaviour – neither at work nor when you notice harmful behaviour outside of work. If you do not feel comfortable to directly talk to your co-worker, you might want to get advice from a supervisor – or inform a supervisor about the situation.

 Harvard Business Review, How to Respond to an Offensive Comment at Work

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Social media users & haters

There are different strategies when responding to hateful comments on social media, especially as hate speech itself is often coordinated and organised. Consequently, it might be useful to know about the strategies of haters on social media to plan your responses.

Most social media users commenting on your counter or alternative narrative campaign will not be from your direct environment, but nonetheless it pays off to stay calm – and think about a response.

As a general rule of thumb, it is recommended to think about the emotional motive behind a hateful comment or racist “argument” and then address this when choosing to respond – empathy is key and might be a helpful advisor in interactions with social media users as they are often driven by anger and fear. Of course, there is nothing wrong with blocking comments and users if their only goal is to spread hate.

In addition, it is important to keep in mind that you will not change someone else’s opinion on social media. It is okay that people have different opinions, but racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination are not tolerated and you should make that clear.

Furthermore, when interacting with haters and hateful commentators, you should keep the social media users in mind that are silently following the discussion. Do not respond in anger or with insults since this will not benefit your cause.

 

Common strategies of haters	Recommended counter speech strategies
Victim Blaming: A strategy used by haters to put blame on the people targeted by hate speech or violent actions	Call out the haters’ strategy and stand by the victims. Try to stay calm and do not get distracted. Correct misinformation and stay on topic.
Fake News: Hateful comments are often accompanied by fake news, misinterpreted studies and wrong statistics, to mislead other users.	Use reliable sources when providing facts. Point out contradictions and raise questions – something that also works when responding to conspiracy myths.
Topic overload & Whataboutism: to overwhelm the other side, haters often address countless topics that at a second look are unrelated. Whataboutism is about distracting from the real issue and focusing on oneself or another group	It is important to always refer back to what the actual topic of the debate is. If possible, you should also respond to the "facts" of the commentators, correct them and ask questions if necessary.
Anger & Fear: Sometimes users do not comment tactically, but unload fear or anger in comments. Often, they then relate them to current political or social situations.	Be empathetic: Often it may be worthwhile to honestly inquire about and understand their fears as well as the background. That can maybe lead to a reduction of their fears.
Negate racism: many comments start with “I’m not racist, but..”. Using this strategy, users want to prevent racism from being called out.	In this case it is useful to educate the user and all those who read the comments about the topic, and name the used strategies.