BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe — What started as a social media campaign of flag selfies and hashtags has evolved into a full-fledged citizen movement with “Captain Zimbabwe” as its leader.

The following selection of stories originally appeared on RNS as part of a reporting series on religious tolerance and combating hate speech online. These and other stories in the series were supported by three grants RNF/RNS received from Google.
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe — What started as a social media campaign of flag selfies and hashtags has evolved into a full-fledged citizen movement with “Captain Zimbabwe” as its leader.
CANTERBURY, England — The Quilliam Foundation’s #NotAnotherBrother video on YouTube joins an increasingly crowded market of online counter-extremism campaigns in Britain. Is it #JustAnotherVideo?
Interfaith leaders are spearheading a new fight for net neutrality — once the realm of tech wonks and digital rights activists — and framing a free and open Internet as essential for religious freedom, social justice and interfaith cooperation.
CAPE TOWN — Vishavjit Singh is one of many cartoonists using art to fight religious intolerance, hatred, stereotypes and censorship attempts online.
YANGON, Myanmar — “It’s not enough to complain about content. That just removes the bad stuff after you already saw it,” said Matt Schissler, an adviser to the civil society group Paung Ku.
NAIROBI, Kenya — A conflict unfolding in the Tana Delta has led a Canadian-based genocide prevention organization to launch an innovative project to monitor false rumors and give community members neutral and accurate information.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Nearly 1,000 people attended the Oct. 19 event at a park in the western state of Selangor, aimed at helping Muslims overcome religious stigma and fear of canines and learn permissible ways to touch a dog.
The project shows the power of harnessing online media — in this case, the crowdfunding site Indiegogo — to push back against hate speech from a reviled source.