The event series titled "Hate Speech: Current Debates and Alternative Approaches" was held on March 14-15, 2025, at the Havak Hall of the Anarad Hığutyun Building. Organized as part of the "Utilizing Digital Technology for Social Cohesion, Positive Messaging and Peace by Boosting Collaboration, Exchange and Solidarity" project, the event was broadcast live in English and Turkish on the foundation’s YouTube channel.

Hate speech was comprehensively examined from interdisciplinary perspectives under the themes of definition, detection, and combating hate speech. On the first day, the "Utilizing Digital Technology for Social Cohesion, Positive Messaging and Peace by Boosting Collaboration, Exchange and Solidarity" project was introduced, and discussions focused on defining hate speech in the context of media, social media, and ethical practices. The second day was dedicated to linguistic and computer engineering approaches for detecting hate speech, as well as socially driven strategies for combating it. Throughout the two-day event, two reports were also presented: Hate Speech: Current Issues and Debates and Utilizing AI Against Hate Speech: A Guide To Annotation, Classification, And Detection.

During the event, the AI tool pari, developed in partnership with Hrant Dink Foundation, Boğaziçi University, and Sabancı University, was introduced. This tool detects hate speech in Turkish and Arabic texts, prioritizing the fight against hate speech while preserving freedom of expression. Its goal is to raise public awareness and contribute to the development of inclusive language. The name pari carries meaning in multiple languages: In Latin, it means "equal", emphasizing values of equality, in Armenian, it means "good", symbolizing our effort to promote kindness in language, encourage constructive dialogue, and foster pluralism, in Persian and Turkish, "pari" translates to "fairy", representing our commitment to strengthening coexistence in both linguistic and digital spaces. With standard and professional membership options, individual users, researchers, and professionals can detect and analyze hate speech in text-based datasets. The tool helps users understand, define, and combat hate speech, aiming to promote inclusive language in online and offline spaces while supporting users through data analysis.

You can access pari here.