At the end of May 2026, 40 young people from eight countries came together in Marrakech for Common Ground, an Erasmus+ Youth Exchange focused on one of the challenges young people increasingly face in their everyday lives: online hate speech.
The project looked at how hate spreads through group chats, short-form video, social media and other digital spaces, often targeting people who are already vulnerable. Rather than focusing only on large campaigns, Common Ground centred on small, repeatable habits that young people could use in everyday situations to recognise hate, respond safely and keep dialogue open across differences.
During the first days, participants got to know one another, built a shared foundation for the exchange and explored how hate speech spreads online, including how messages can be distorted, framed and amplified before reaching us.
They also compared the realities of digital hate across their countries, looking at how issues such as migration, identity, gender and sexual orientation appear in different contexts.
A key part of the project was learning practical ways to respond. Participants worked with the “Pause, Check, Choose” approach, reflected on the harm caused by rumours and hate speech, and practised simple responses such as asking for a source, setting a boundary, naming the impact or choosing not to amplify harmful content.
