LONDON – Facebook has launched a new guide to improve online safety of Muslims online and provide advice on reporting increasing hate speech.

The guide is the first fruit of Facebook’s Online Civil Courage Initiative (OCCI) and has been produced in cooperation between Facebook and British community group Faith Associates, Evening Times reported on Tuesday.

“We have seen the dramatic rise of Islamophobic rhetoric and terrorist-inspired content that manifests online and appreciate Facebook’s effort in supporting grassroots organizations to enhance the knowledge and develop the skills of Muslim users to directly deal with it when they see it,” Faith Associates chief executive Shaukat Warraich said, calling the guide an important tool for Muslims.

Warraich said he was confident that the new guide will be well-received in the Muslim community and will “empower Muslim users of Facebook with the confidence and resilience to become effective in identifying and tackling the risks that exist online.”

The new guide will also aid the development of mosques, madrassas, and imams in their efforts to serve their congregations.

“Faith Associates will be working closely with them to help deliver training on e-safety and facilitate spaces for conversation around pertinent social issues,” he added.

Titled, ‘Keeping Muslims Safe Online: Tackling Hate and Bigotry,’ the guide includes information on how to tackle and respond to hateful content on the social network in a positive way, as well as details on how to report content inspired by terrorism.

It followed sharp criticism of Facebook over its policing of explicit, dangerous and extreme content on the site.

“Facebook welcomes all communities and there is no place for hate on the platform,” Simon Milner, the social network’s head of policy in the UK, said.

“We work in a number of ways to tackle this issue – from the use of artificial intelligence to find and remove terrorist propaganda, to our teams of counter-terrorism experts and reviewers around the world working to keep extremist content off our platform.”

Helping Muslims

The new guide will be launched at a parliamentary reception, where MPs will be invited to speak to Imams from their constituencies about the issues facing Muslim communities.

It will be made available online as well as distributed to mosques around the UK.

Online hate speech aimed at Muslims in the UK has “soared,” according to a Council of Europe report published last year.

The report found that targeting of Muslim women, in particular, has risen on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Of 548 Islamophobic incidents reported to the anti-discrimination Tell MAMA group, 408 took place online.

“Recent statistics and trends are showing that hate and expressions of hate within our society are on the increase and they seem to be coming from all different segments of society,” Imam Adam Kelwick, from Liverpool, told inews.

“It is times like this when we all have to come together and challenge this hatred.”