Portsmouth City Council invited to New York to discuss how cities tackle online hate

Portsmouth was invited to talk about its work with young people at the event which brought together leaders from more than 150 cities - from Cape Town to The Hague and Sydney to Washington.

Councillor Suzy Horton, the Deputy Leader of PCC and Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Education, spoke about the council’s ongoing work in the field.

PCC have worked with the University of Portsmouth and local organisations including Motiv8 and Unloc, as well as schools and colleges, to better equip young people in the city to interpret online information and address harmful content.

The summit, which took placeto coincide with the opening week of the United Nations General Assembly, was supported by the European Union, the US Department of State and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Portsmouth's travel, accommodation and expenses for the event were funded in full by these organisations.

Cllr Horton said: "It was an incredible honour to be invited to represent Portsmouth at this global event.

"City leaders from across the world came together to examine the vital role local leaders and organisations play in tackling global challenges around hate speech, misinformation and extremism.

"We learnt about incredible work happening around the world to bring communities together and tackle challenging issues at a local level."

Charlie Pericleous, Prevent Officer at PCC, added: "We were delighted to share the work we've been doing in Portsmouth with young people - from training youth workers, community development workers and external agencies to better understand online harms, to our partnership with Portsmouth University’s Cybercrime Clinic to provide training to young people around misinformation.

"We brought back plenty of valuable ideas and insights that will help strengthen this work.”

PCC's work in helping young people identify and resist online content that could promote hateful or harmful views has also been highlighted by the Local Government Association as a good example of innovation.

Dr Vasileios Karagiannopoulos, from the UoP’s Cybercrime Clinic, said: "It was fantastic to see how well youth and community workers and young people themselves responded to the online safety programme we developed with the council and other local partners.

"We were able to help equip them with the skills they need to closely examine the content they see and consume online - from fact checking and reverse image searches, to understanding conspiracy theories and debunking misinformation."