When we launched the Uli plugin in 2022, a tool that redacted abusive words from one's browser, we received feedback from multiple academics that they saw it as being valuable as a pedagogical tool. As a tool that would help their students understand how pervasive online trolling is, and help denormalize ways of speech and engaging online that they had gotten used to. Acting on the feedback, we introduced an interactive workshop with people over the age of 14 in schools and colleges to denormalise online abuse and harm through hate speech and slur words. These workshops aim to push back against the harm caused by offensive language on the internet through activities that sensitize, explain and engage students in an empathetic and open manner.

These workshops help students understand both visible and invisible forms of online harm, explore the different ways abuse manifests on social media platforms, and recognize who is most often targeted. Through the few iterations of the two-hour long workshop that we’ve had in colleges of Delhi University and online with NGO Sajhe Sapne, we’ve come to the understanding that there is an urgent need for such workshops with young adults who are incessantly online and vulnerable to a wide range of abuse that impacts their social, mental and physical health.

We focus on interactive learning because when students feel heard and included, they are more likely to share real experiences from their online lives and understand that harmful behaviour they’ve normalised may actually be abuse that they can report.

One of the most normalised forms of abuse is hate speech and slur words which largely go unreported on social media. Through conversations and activities specifically and sensitively designed to ignite conversations around slur words, we explore what makes some words slurs, what makes them problematic and whom do these slur words end up targeting? We believe it is important to address how problematic terms are weaponised against marginalised and historically oppressed communities and gender minorities.

Through India-centric data and research on cases of cyber crime and AI-enabled online abuse, the workshop delves into tools like the Uli plug-in, resources and tools that students can use to prevent and safeguard themselves from online abuse. While we do believe actively that continuous and consistent work is required to deal with online abuse, these workshops with young adults act as a step forward in that direction.