The Counter-narrative Handbook

HENRY TUCK AND TANYA SILVERMAN, JUNE 2016

Given the proliferation of violent extremist content online in recent years, developing effective counter-narratives – messages that offer a positive alternative to extremist propaganda, or deconstruct or delegitimise extremist narratives and challenge extremist ideologies – is an increasingly necessary alternative to online censorship.

This Handbook, funded by Public Safety Canada through the Kanishka Project, was created to help anyone looking to proactively respond to extremist propaganda with counter-narrative campaigns, and is intended as a beginner’s guide for those with little or no previous experience of counter-narrative campaigning. It takes readers through the main stages of creating, launching and evaluating an effective counter-narrative campaign. It can also be used alongside ISD’s freely available online Counter-narrative Toolkit, which can be found at www.counternarratives.org.