MOSCOW, January 20 (Sputnik) - German-speaking Youtube users launched a video campaign against hate and discrimination, known under hashtag #YouGeHA (from German – “Youtube against hate”), designed to raise awareness about racism and intolerance.
“We, the Youtube users of #YouGeHa want to encourage reflection among our viewers and provide them with relevant knowledge to stand up against extremism on the Internet,” the organizers of the campaign wrote on their website.
The activists' idea was to use a creative approach to cover relevant subjects in their own way – seriously or with humor, in an interview or report format. Their projects were gathered under the hashtag #YouGeHA in order to attract more attention to the campaign and make access to the videos easier.
A young man from Russia, who recorded a video to oppose “discrimination against foreigners,” says that he decided to participate in the campaign because he himself comes from abroad. Talking to the camera, he names “10 things foreigners are told”, which he considers annoying. He ironically mentions that Germans have a lot of prejudices, like that Russians always wear caps and others.
Another video covers terrorism and its consequences for Germany. In a 4-minute video report, Rayk Anders suggests that people should direct their hate not against asylum seekers or peaceful Muslims living in their country, but against terrorist organizations like the Islamic State and Boko Haram.
“It is so unworthy that the [harsh] criticism against terrorist organizations is over again mixed up with the fact that one just has a Turkish name,” the activist says, giving as an example the German Bundestag’s politician Cem Özdemit, who is often criticized of being “not enough integrated” and considered an “immigrated evil of democracy” only because of his Turkish-Muslim origin.
Other videos criticized the German anti-Islamic movement PEGIDA, which gained widespread attention for its recent demonstrations all over Germany. PEGIDA, also known under its full name, "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West", is responsible for organizing mass demonstrations against the influx of refugees from Muslim countries.
“PEGIDA makes me nervous,” says a young man in the video called “Pegida und #YouGeHa. He also adds that right-wing populists invent their vaguely formulated claims to intimidate the population and convince people of an alleged ‘foreign influence’.
With a total of 30 official participants, the activists have received than 1.6 million views, 20,000 comments and approximately 125,000 likes on YouTube.
Within the past week, activists also received more than 4,200 tweets, 54,000 retweets and a total of 10.3 million Twitter comments.
Die Initiatoren der #YouGeHa-Kampagne, an der ich teilnahm, haben ein #Fazit formuliert: https://t.co/8PERP9PUG4 pic.twitter.com/odHHnpAUNN
— KWiNK (@LeKWiNK) 27 января 2015
#YouGeHa is one of the reasons I love YouTube so much. When we work together we can change the world!
— Nadine (@N_ko13) 22 января 2015
