Facebook has enlisted the help of college students in taking down online trolls. The social networking giant wants the youth to help fight extremism.
According to Business Insider, Facebook is enlisting college students to fight online trolls with a positive message. It is expected to push back a lot of hateful content on the social media site.
Facebook collaborated with EdVentures Partners and the U.S. State Department about a year ago for the competition entitled "Peer to Peer: Challenging Extremism." With this, college students worldwide were asked to come up with online campaigns that can help fight extremism.
The competition required students to create content, such as videos, which can be easily shared on social media. The content is should provide advice, insight as well as opinions on similar issues that are used by extremists for their own advantage.
"When we were first introduced to P2P we saw the power of the programming," Parisa Zagat told the publication. "Young voices can be really powerful. They can push back against some of the hate and extremism."
It was noted that one of the reasons why Facebook is asking for college students in their battle against extremism is that these young people are able to create content that are relevant and appropriate to the issues that the community is facing. They are able to do that because they, themselves, experience and see the same problems in society first-hand.
U.S. News reported that one group that joined the competition in the U.S. is from the University of Nebraska Omaha. The school's team created The Refugee Perspective Campaign which focuses on community refugees.
The students' advisor, professor Gina Ligon, admitted that the school's demographics have low diversity. There are several students who have never known a refugee or even someone from another country, which are prime targets for white supremacists.
This comes after several higher education institutions have taken a stand to protect undocumented students from Donald Trump's deportation threats. Harvard University and California State University are among the schools that promised to protect undocumented students.
