More Counter Speech needed to combat Hate on Facebook in India

Efforts at Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) online have become an important focus for social networks. CVE targets extremist ideologies, tackling them through alternate narratives that focus on peace-building. It is an invaluable tool to supplement counterterrorism strategies worldwide. To identify effective counter-speech on Facebook, ORF conducted a study analysing posts and comments on prominent public…

CVE: Lessons for India

Have spent the last few months learning about, understanding and critiquing policies that focus on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE in policy jargon)- in order to look at what India can do. This report- a result of all the studying- emphasises the need to go beyond law enforcement-based approaches to terror and extremist violence, and recommends…

The Clash of Civilizations-revisited.

At the end of the Cold War, political scientist Samuel Huntington who taught at Harvard University created a hypothesis. As the break up of the Soviet Union resulted in ethnic conflicts – across Central Asia and Eastern Europe most government officials and foreign policy analysts used his Clash of Civilizations as a prescient bible –…

Monk Ki Baat In Haryana Assembly: Sexist And Misogynist?

In Haryana, a controversy brewed over the Assembly's invitation to Jain monk Tarun Sagar to give an address. While much of the outrage over his speech is around him doing so in the nude, his comments were even more controversial - on the fact that religion and politics have the relationship of a husband and…