At today's closing session of the Democracy Hackathon and the No Hate Speech week, Secretary General Alain Berset has announced the winner of the Council of Europe's "Hack the Hate, Renew Democracy 2026", a flagship event bringing together policymakers, civil society, and young innovators to tackle hate speech, discrimination, and digital challenges.
"Hack the Hate, Renew Democracy 2026" has created a unique space where debate met action and where expertise in human rights, the rule of law and democracy have helped shape innovation. Hate silences voices, while tech innovators who are mindful of broader political and societal implications are shaping a digital revolution that benefits every individual and every society.
"It's just been fascinating to see the Hackathon and No Hate Speech Week come together like this. And they say hate is winning. Not in this house, it isn't," said the Secretary General Alain Berset.
This year's award winners are:
Grand Jury Award
Quorum (United Kingdom) proposes MOSAIC, which enables survivors of online abuse to submit a single anonymous report that is processed entirely on-device, ensuring raw data never leaves the user's phone. Reports are aggregated when multiple independent submissions confirm the same incident, after which human analysts verify and approve structured evidence packages that can be directly used by electoral commissions, NGOs, or prosecutors, without requiring platform cooperation. This will address the fragmentation of online abuse reporting.
The three other finalists whose prototypes have been selected are:
Bulle (France) - Audience Choice Hackathon Award
Bulle is an algorithm designed to counter online echo chambers by working within existing social-media dynamics rather than against them. It addresses the way engagement-driven recommendation systems amplify outrage and reinforce ideological camps. Bulle aims to expose users to constructive disagreement within their own communities. By surfacing internal diversity of views, it seeks to reduce polarisation and weaken outrage loops.
All for One (Republic of Moldova)
All for One propose AgnoSpeech, a privacy-protection tool that enables organisations to analyse and share hate speech data without exposing the identities of authors, victims, or bystanders. It allows for safer research and moderation without sharing raw data.
Lumen (Romania)
Lumen is an open-source tool that exposes coordinated online manipulation by detecting patterns of behaviour, such as synchronised posting, unusual speed, and message repetition, without monitoring identities or removing content. By publishing coordination scores rather than censoring speech it helps distinguish manufactured outrage from genuine public sentiment while protecting freedom of expression and privacy.
As jury member Ayisha Piotty, independent expert in AI policy, put it: "Participants from tech, academia, and democracy expertise have broken out of their silos and brought voices to the table to demonstrate that a process of collaborative, inclusive innovation is a way to put leverage back into people's hands".
The winner and the three other finalists have received (combined total) major development boosts including:
- A total of €15,000 Council of Europe development grant
- Up to $50,000 in Azure technology grants from Microsoft across all four competition tracks.
The winning teams will also receive mentoring to further develop and implement their projects, transforming promising ideas into concrete solutions.
Youth Contest Award
The winners of the Youth Contest, an international challenge designed for university and master's students from across Europe, are Democracy Wrapped. The team is composed of members from Ukraine, France, and Ireland, and they developed a video showcasing the Council of Europe's action on hate speech and the role of the New Democratic Pact for Europe in it.
A successful hackathon
This year's hackathon has gathered interdisciplinary teams of residents from across the 46 Council of Europe member states, tasked with urgent real-world digital challenges, including AI tools to flag inauthentic behaviour, deepfakes, and privacy risks in order to counter hate speech.
The hackathon involved 20 teams comprising 71 participants from Albania, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Romania, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Serbia, Türkiye and the United Kingdom, with women making up about 31% of all participants, far exceeding the tech-sector average.
Participants have been supported by expert mentors from the areas of technology, law, and civil society to ensure solutions are grounded in both technical possibility and democratic values.
This initiative is part of a broader consultation for a New Democratic Pact for Europe, aimed at identifying policy recommendations and tools addressing democratic backsliding.
Speech by the Secretary General
New Democratic Pact for Europe
Secretary General Alain Berset
