The Toronto Holocaust Museum (THM), in partnership with the creative agency Diamond, has launched a pioneering campaign titled “Hate Tags” to address the alarming 312% surge in hate speech and misinformation across social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Recognizing that algorithms prioritize emotional engagement, the museum sought to intervene directly within the user experience. By framing their intervention as a digital “warning label,” the team aimed to stop users in their tracks, forcing them to think critically about the problematic content they were about to consume.
The initiative employs predictive AI and keyword matching to identify hateful content in real time. Rather than simply posting public service announcements, the team utilized media spend to insert warning labels directly into feeds just before a user encounters harmful material. This strategy effectively “hijacks” the negative cycle of the algorithm, turning the platforms’ own mechanics against the bad actors who curate and amplify extremist propaganda. The system is designed to be nimble, with human oversight ensuring that the AI’s targeting remains accurate and ethically justified.
Technical execution involved reverse-engineering tools typically used by brands to avoid problematic content, instead using them to aggressively track and target videos containing hate speech. When platforms attempted to shadow-ban or delete their warning comments, the team responded with agility, utilizing different formats like GIFs to bypass censorship. Agency directors acknowledged that these tactics often skirted platform regulations, but they argued that the necessity of combatting coordinated online hate justified the unconventional, and at times combative, technical approach.
The campaign intentionally distanced itself from the THM brand in its early stages to maintain a broad appeal and avoid premature polarization. Despite this anonymity, the “Hate Tags” accounts were immediately bombarded with antisemitic and anti-Israel vitriol, a phenomenon the organizers cite as cold, hard evidence of the toxic environment they were trying to expose. Throughout the campaign, the team utilized a human-in-the-loop system to validate every intervention, ensuring that the technology served as a shield for critical thinking rather than a blunt instrument of suppression.
The impact of the initiative has been significant, yielding a click-through rate 100% higher than industry benchmarks. To date, the campaign has facilitated over 2.6 million warning label interceptions, successfully reaching the target demographic of Canadians aged 18–24. The success is rooted in the strategy of “interruption”—grabbing the attention of a generation that has grown immune to traditional advertising, and compelling them to engage deeper with the topic of media literacy.
Looking ahead, the Toronto Holocaust Museum plans to scale these efforts, bringing the program to university campuses and expanding its reach to foster better digital citizenship. By bridging traditional historical education with modern, high-tech activism, the museum has successfully positioned itself as a relevant voice in the digital age. Success, as measured by the THM, is not just about reach, but about creating an intervention that effectively challenges the next generation to be more informed and inclusive online citizens.
