Learning platform ShoutOut, designed to teach students how to recognize and respond to Holocaust denial and antisemitism on social media, has officially launched in Germany, the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) announced.
The new digital program was presented at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) in Berlin on June 26.
ShoutOut mainly offers a 15-minute immersive virtual game in which players roleplay as trainees in a resistance movement and learn how to identify and deconstruct antisemitic patterns and content, while being educated on how it spreads online.
The platform is currently offered in German and English, and is free for international schools beginning this month. Its target audience is secondary school students, and the program also provides lesson plans and educational materials for educators to lead group discussions on antisemitism and online behavior.
“[Holocaust survivors still with us today] worry – as do many of us – what unchecked hate can do next,” Greg Schneider, Executive Vice President of the Claims Conference, said.
“It is why we are adamant about working with developers on innovative technologies like ShoutOut to combat antisemitism, Holocaust denial and distortion.”
A 2020 Claims Conference study of US millennials and Gen Z found that 63% of the demographic were unaware that six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust.
Nearly half of millennials, Gen Z witnessed online Holocaust denial, distortion
The survey also found that 49% of the demographic had witnessed Holocaust denial or distortion online.
“If we fail to win the fight against antisemitism online, we risk losing the internet as a space for democratic discourse,” Dr. Felix Klein, Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight Against Antisemitism, said.
“That is why ShoutOut is so important: the project empowers young people to recognize antisemitic patterns, understand them, and speak out against them.”