Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance, today launched #TweetForTolerance competition that will provide a platform to people in the Arab region and the Middle East, to express their views and ideas about coexistence, tolerance, human fraternity, respect for others, acceptance of differences, and other human values, and reject all forms of extremism, intolerance and violence.
Launched in cooperation with the Arab Youth Centre in Abu Dhabi and Twitter’s Middle East and North Africa office, the competition allows participants to express their vision of tolerance in three languages, Arabic, English and French.
This was stated during a virtual press conference organised by the ministry, wherein the launch of the innovative competition was officially announced in the presence of Afra Al Sabri, Director-General of the Minister of Tolerance Office, several senior officials of the ministry, more than 50 young people from different Arab countries, officials of the Arab Youth Centre and Twitter’s Middle East office representatives.
At the onset, Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak announced that the ministry has recently trained a large group of “Champions of Tolerance” from various nationalities residing in the UAE, in addition to training a group of Arab youth from more than 12 Arab countries within the tolerance programme, to become leaders in everything related to the values of tolerance, coexistence and human fraternity by leveraging digital and social networking platforms at local, Arab and international levels.
Sheikh Nahyan said, “The next stage of youth orientation aims to protect future generations against extremism, intolerance and hatred, to support their authentic human and societal values that call for tolerance, coexistence, respect for others and acceptance of differences, and to strengthen their humanitarian contributions.” The ministry will achieve this goal through multiple means, including cooperation from social networking sites, he stressed.
He stated that the launch of #TweetForTolerance competition in cooperation with Twitter is just the beginning of the launch of the ministry’s interactive activities regarding Arab youth in all Arab sister countries.
To participate, at least three people can create or use an existing Twitter account through which they can share impactful content around tolerance and compassion, he added.
He further stated that a guide will be provided for all competition participants that includes the conditions, method of participation and the concepts of tolerance. The competition will last for two weeks from its launch.
On the conditions for participation, Sheikh Nahyan explained, “The participant should be of Arabic nationality, residing in the Middle East or North Africa and should use the competition hashtag #TweetForTolerance, #tweet_pour_la tolérance, or #غرد_للتسامح.”
To join, participants should follow the ministry’s account @uaetolerance, and “Like” the competition’s tweet. The criteria for selecting the winning account will focus only on key factors including its impact it creates, the level of creativity, the amount of engagement around it, and the visuals it contains.
Sheikh Nahyan said that one of the most important topics around the competition participation according to the rules and conditions are to confront negative values such as racism and discrimination, revenge and hatred, and bullying.
George Salama, Head of Public Policy and Government Relations at Twitter for the MENA region, said, ”We encourage the youth to channel the power that Twitter gives them into positive, inclusive, and open messaging that promotes the health of the public conversation. We have introduced several measures to help people feel safe while expressing themselves, by proactively surfacing abuse using technology and recently expanding our hateful conduct policy to remove further dehumanising language on the platform.”
