ISD’s Counter Conversations program is an experimental technique meant to address this gap and determine whether offline intervention strategies can be applied to social media. Initially delivered on Facebook and spanning Extreme Right and Islamist beliefs, the project enables individuals exhibiting apparent indicators of radicalisation to meet and communicate with someone who can assist them in leaving hate.
This report summarizes the findings of a pilot program aimed at identifying individuals exhibiting signs of radicalisation on social media and engaging them in direct, individualized, and private ‘counter-conversations’ with the goal of deradicalisation from extremist ideology and disengagement from extremist movements. This is the first initiative in the world to have tested the systematic and scaled delivery of online interventions.