Facebook launches Digital Literacy Library in six Indian languages

Social media giant Facebook Monday said it has launched a 'Digital Literacy Library' offering safety tips for users in six Indian languages as part of its efforts to train 3,00,000 people in the country on digital literacy by the year-end.

The Digital Literacy Library will be a resource for educators looking to address digital literacy and help young people build the skills needed for safely enjoying digital technology, Facebook said in a statement.

The library will be available in six local languages namely, Bengali, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam, it added.

Through various efforts, the US-based company has already trained about two lakh people in India and aims to take the number to three lakh by the end of 2018.

Facebook is also organising a two-day child safety hackathon at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. With a focus on developing solutions to help combat child sex trafficking, all prototypes developed at the hackathon will be donated to NGO partners to help them in their work of protecting children, the statement said.

"Everyone deserves to feel safe on Facebook, and we feel it is important that we help people safely navigate the Internet. The launch of the Digital Literacy Library, the child safety hackathon and several offline training programmes we run in partnership with local experts, reaffirm our seriousness in combating online abuse," Antigone Davis, Global head for Safety at Facebook, said.

Davis added that the company expects to train three lakh people by the end of 2018, and multiply these efforts in times to come.

The training is targeted primarily towards women and youth and is being done in collaboration with organisations like Cyber Peace Foundation, Learning Links Foundation, Internet and Mobile Association of India, Gaon Connection, and Centre for Social Research, among others.