Brutal Postings: Online homophobia posted in the real world for the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia

May. 15, 2019

Friday May 17th is the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia and this year, Rethink and Fondation Emergence decided to tackle cyberhomophobia and transphobia. Every 23 seconds, a homophobic or transphobic comment is posted online, and nobody cares. The issue is getting worst each and every day, and nothing suggest an improvement.

Because our reflex is to ignore those comments, Rethink tried to make them unignorable. That’s why agency created “Brutal Postings”, a social experiment where they posted online homophobia in the real world. To do this, agency selected, printed and displayed on a wall, 74 hateful posts from the last 6 years that we can still find online.

The stunt was supposed to last for several days but was shut down after 20 minutes by police officers, who  had already received dozens of calls. Meanwhile, all those hateful messages are still online.

At a time when Facebook is making an effort to adress hateful remarks, it is obvious that the best way to resolve cyberhate is for individuals to report it. By doing this project, Rethink and Fondation Emergence hope to increase the number of reportings. We aim at making the Web a place where hate towards others is not tolerated.

The Émergence Fondation is a non-profit that fights homophobia and transphobia and advocates for the inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals in society with gatherings, projects and awareness initiatives like the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, launched in 2003.