The good and bad thing about the internet is that it allows for relatively anonymity. You can post things you normally wouldn’t say to someone’s face in real life while hiding behind a screen name, meaning that the person has no way of knowing who you are. Unfortunately this has led to the birth of trolls who post things without thinking about how it could affect others around them.
In a bid to put an end to racism, or at least stem its spread, in Brazil there is an anti-racism campaign going on in which racist comments that are posted online, are instead posted onto a billboard. These comments are printed up and placed on billboards near the poster’s houses which is located via the geo-tagging function.
Of course the name and photo of the poster are blurred out to protect their privacy, but they obviously know who they are and what they have said, and hopefully this public shaming of sorts will make them think twice about whether or not they should have said what they did, and also to demonstrate the disconnect between comments made online behind the safety of a screen and how it sounds like in real life.
Whether or not this is an effective campaign remains to be seen, but it certainly does make you think twice about the next time you want to post something nasty online.
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