Developers, designers, data scientists, students, academics and creative problem solvers…

Looking for a way to use your skills for good?

Join us for Hack Hate – an online, entirely virtual, data-driven hate crime hackathon – taking place over 3 weeks, starting October 11th.

Hack Hate

Come with a team, or join one to make new friends, build cool tools, and come up with ingenious solutions to #SpreadLoveNotHate

Use your skills for good

Compete for prizes

We’ll be offering prizes in a number of categories – to be announced at the beginning of the event.

Experts will help you and your team to find a project, devise a great new prototype or find new insights in open data that could positively impact the fight against hate crime.

We’re working with partners from across the UK to tackle issues of hate crime. You’ll hear from police officers, victims, community and advocacy groups, and work with specialised datasets to build something new.

Partners

We’re working with the Metropolitan Police and a number of partner agencies to bring expertise and insight into the challenges that victims of hate crime face every day.

Q&A

Is it an open event? Yes – Hack Hate is open to all creative problem solvers, regardless of experience. Just be willing to pitch in, and help to create something new. You’ll get to participate alongside friends, students, amateurs and professionals.

Is there a code of conduct? Yes – all our events have a code of conduct. Nobody should feel uncomfortable at any of our events – and we’ll take action, if necessary, to ensure that.

Aside from our code of conduct, we specifically ask that participants not make unsolicited interactions with perpetrators or victims of hate crime for the event. This protects you and the victims of hate crime – who may not wish to be contacted. Any data you gather online must be done passively.

Isn’t this just an excuse to censor free speech? We’re not in the least bit interested in censorship. In an ideal world, nobody would want to hurt others with their speech, nor would they want to discriminate based on the characteristics of others’ identities. We’re interested in ways we can help the victims of abuse, and insights into how we can make our world a kinder place.

Is it a hackathon? We’re taking some of the best elements of a hackathon and a datathon, and mixing them together. There will be prizes awarded in a number of categories by our judges, and an opportunity to create a presentation to be shown to everybody. We’re hoping to combine the fun of a hackathon with the practicalities of an online event.

But not a physical event? Yes – it’s just not safe to run physical events yet what with the pandemic, and we’d rather not put our participants at risk. Instead, we’re running the event online. You’re welcome to get together with your friends to work on the challenges, if you can do that safely.

Why is it 3 weeks long? We wanted to give everyone the ability to plan their own time, and create something awesome. Perhaps it’s not as frantic as a weekend hackathon, but maybe with the extra time you can get more creative with your project.

The registration asked for my physical address. Do I have to give it to you? No, that’s entirely optional. If we meet our sponsorship goals, we’re hoping to be able to send you some giveaways and freebies as a thank you for taking part in the event.

How will it work online? We’re going to be live streaming our opening ceremony, sharing information about the challenges and then we’ll be using our Discord server to help teams get together and communicate. We’ll be setting up check-ins with experts to help you choose your project. Towards the end of the 3 weeks, you’ll be able to submit a video presentation of your project, explaining what you’ve done. We’ll show those presentations as a part of the closing event.

Do I have to present? Nobody has to do anything – we’re all volunteers, but if you’ve got a great idea this is an opportunity to try it out, and show it off to the world – and maybe do some good! If you present a project, you might also win a prize.