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Sixth Global Summit: The Role of Mayors and Local Governments in Countering Online Harms

Publication Date:

22/01/2026

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Event Reports

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community safetydigital literacyOnline HarmsSixth Global SummitTorontoTrust in institutions

— 10 minutes reading time

This report provides a summary of discussions during the session and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Strong Cities Network Management Unit, Strong Cities members, event sponsors or participants.

Introduction

On 9 – 11 December 2025, the Strong Cities Network held its Sixth Global Summit in Toronto (Canada), bringing together more than 300 representatives of local governments, national governments, civil society organisations, academia, the private sector and international organisations. This included nearly 60 mayors and governors, as well as 110 other local government officials from 100 cities and 42 countries. Under the theme Stronger Together: Forging Safer, Connected, Thriving Cities in a Changing World, the Summit provided a platform for city leaders to share practical and innovative solutions to prevent and respond to hate, extremism and polarisation, and build safer, more resilient and more inclusive communities.

The Summit included a plenary session on The Role of Mayors and Local Governments in Countering Online Harms, which examined how local governments are responding to the growing impact of online harms on community safety, trust and social cohesion. The session explored the role of mayors and city leadership in strengthening digital literacy, countering mis- and disinformation and preventing online hate and harassment through whole-of-city approaches.

Scene-Setters:

• Sasha Havlicek, Co-Founder and CEO, Institute for Strategic Dialogue (United Kingdom) – Moderator
• Jeff Fawcett, Mayor, City of Brandon (Manitoba, Canada)
• Manuel Antonio De Araujo, Mayor, City of Quelimane (Mozambique)
• Nadia Zourgui-Saada, Deputy Mayor, City and Eurometropolis of Strasbourg (France)
• Van Johnson, Mayor, City of Savannah (Georgia, United States)
• William Peduto, Former Mayor, City of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, United States)

Key Takeaways

1. Mayors can leverage their position of being closest to their communities to raise awareness about online harms and how the city is working to prevent them. Consistency is key. Local leaders must meet residents where they are, show up and listen to their perspectives. Prevention efforts must be co-created with community members and partners to be effective and local leaders need to be models of civility and respect to encourage the same behaviour of their residents.
2. Online harms are local in impact, even when they originate elsewhere. Mis- and disinformation, online hate and harassment directly affect community safety, trust in institutions and social cohesion, placing mayors and local governments on the frontlines of response and prevention.
3. Whole-of-city coordination strengthens prevention and response. Mayors are most effective when they mobilise schools, libraries, law enforcement, social services, local media and community organisations to address online harms through coordinated, place-based strategies.
4. Education and early intervention are critical prevention tools. Digital literacy, media literacy and civic education help residents recognise harm, navigate online spaces safely and reduce vulnerability to polarisation and manipulation.
5. Relationships and dialogue function as protective infrastructure. Long-term relationship-building, including interfaith and community bridgebuilding, alongside consistent, visible leadership and dialogue, helps counter polarisation and reduce the risk of offline harm.
6. City action must be supported by stronger multi-level governance. While mayors play a critical role, effective prevention requires clearer reporting mechanisms, platform accountability and coordination across sectors, including social media companies and levels of government.

Key Themes 

1. Online Harms Can be Catalysts for Local Violence

While online harms unfold in digital spaces, their impacts are acutely local. Mis- and disinformation, online hate and harassment and rapidly evolving threats directly shape community safety, trust in institutions and social cohesion in cities. Mayors and local governments often sit on the frontlines of these challenges, frequently serving as the first point of response when harms materialise within communities.

Speakers underscored how online hate, disinformation and extremist narratives can directly precipitate offline violence and long-lasting community trauma. William Peduto, Former Mayor of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), United States, reflected on the 27 October 2018 antisemitic attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, noting that the attacker was radicalised by online narratives portraying migrants as existential threats. He highlighted that much of today’s online hate “is deliberately engineered and amplified for profit within the attention economy, creating conditions in which online radicalisation can escalate into devastating, place-based violence”.

Similarly, Nadia Zourgui-Saada, Deputy Mayor, City and Eurometropolis of Strasbourg (France), described the 11 December 2018 attack on the Strasbourg Christmas Market by a locally radicalised individual. While the local government had already been working to counter racism, homophobia and radicalisation, the attack marked a turning point that intensified fear and underscored the urgency of coordinated city-led action. She further emphasised that responses must address not only immediate security concerns but also the underlying social and digital conditions that allow online harms to translate into real-world violence.

Manuel Antonio De Araujo, Mayor of Quelimane (Mozambique), described how online hostility toward cyclists reinforced social stigma and created challenges for local safety. In response, the Mayor played a coordinating role across municipal departments to ensure shared understanding of the issue and to make sure accurate information was communicated directly from the city, countering online hostility that was affecting safety and trust. He emphasised education and sustained public communication as tools to challenge negative perceptions, noting that over time these efforts contributed to greater acceptance of active mobility within the city.

Speakers also noted that online harms often exploit isolation and disaffection. In this context, they highlighted the value of global peer exchange through the Strong Cities Network in demonstrating that the impacts of online harms and social polarisation on governance and social cohesion are rarely isolated or unique to specific localities. Sharing experiences across regions helps break down silos and supports the exchange of practical responses across diverse local contexts.

2. Countering Online Harms Through Crisis Communication and Digital Education

Jeff Fawcett, Mayor of Brandon (Manitoba, Canada) described how the city responded to a violent incident at a high school by working closely with trusted local media to prevent misinformation, counter early speculation that risked inflaming community tensions and quickly establish a tone of empathy and factual clarity. He emphasised the role of local journalism in sustaining public trust during moments of crisis. As local media ecosystems continue to erode, speakers noted that proactive engagement with credible local journalism is especially critical in the immediate post-incident period, when misinformation can spread rapidly and shape public perception.

Recognising that online harms affect all age groups, Deputy Mayor Zourgui-Saada highlighted Strasbourg’s use of specialised educators and workshops to support young people and residents in developing digital skills and using online tools responsibly and safely. She also stressed that online hate and harassment must be treated seriously and, where appropriate, addressed through appropriate accountability measures, underscoring the importance of protecting victims of online harm and ensuring access to communal and institutional support.

3. Relationships Matter as Protective Infrastructure

Speakers highlighted that long-term relationship-building across faiths, sectors and communities is one of the most effective buffers against polarisation. William Peduto pointed to Pittsburgh’s Interfaith Network, noting that years of trust-building enabled rapid and authentic solidarity following the Tree of Life attack, including Muslim community members supporting families of the Jewish victims. He emphasised that local governments play a critical role in amplifying, legitimising and sustaining grassroots leadership.

Van Johnson, Mayor of Savannah (Georgia, United States), described how informal digital engagement created spaces for dialogue, connection and visibility for residents who might otherwise feel unseen or isolated. What began as a necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic evolved into regular, hour-long Friday Night Live Facebook sessions in which he shared updates on local and global developments and invited residents to ask questions directly. He said the sessions drew as many as 20,000 participants and became so valued by residents that he continued them well beyond the pandemic. He also noted that sustaining these spaces required a significant personal time commitment and consistent presence, underscoring that trust-building through dialogue is resource-intensive but impactful in humanising leadership and reducing hostility. While acknowledging that trolls and disruption can emerge online, he noted that sustained, visible presence and dialogue helped build a sense of community and that “the goodwill of the masses” often outweighed disruptive behaviour.

Across cases, speakers underscored that person-to-person contact, dialogue and visible moral leadership are critical antidotes to online radicalisation and hate. They spoke about how while online spaces often amplify division, residents are frequently more open to listening, engagement and compromise in in-person settings. This reinforces the importance of mayors and local governments creating opportunities for in-person engagements with residents, consistently looking to build and/or strengthen trust with local institutions and investing in timely, relationship-based communication. These efforts not only help with preventing hate incidents but also mitigate the impact on social cohesion should one occur.

4. Need for Multi-Level Action

Speakers reflected on the challenges cities face in responding to online harms that extend beyond local jurisdiction. The discussion highlighted difficulties related to reporting online threats, responding to emerging risks (including those with new and evolving technologies) and supporting the victims of online harassment, alongside broader concerns about how platform dynamics can amplify harm.

Mayor Johnson spoke about the personal and democratic costs of sustained online harassment. He noted that the scale and intensity of abuse, made easier by the internet, are discouraging many people from serving in public office, raising concerns about who is ultimately willing and able to lead cities when capable leaders are being driven out by slander and threats. He emphasised the need for stronger legislation and clearer standards of accountability, drawing an analogy to the courtroom: while free expression is protected, disruptive and abusive behaviour is not tolerated, and similar expectations of order and responsibility should apply in digital public spaces.

More broadly, speakers noted that regulatory frameworks governing digital technologies continue to lag far behind their societal impact. As a result, local governments are often left managing the consequences of online harms without authority over the platforms, algorithms and economic incentives that drive them.

The discussion raised questions around early warning, online wellbeing and pathways to violence, particularly where online warning signs intersect with real-world harm. While cities play a critical role in prevention and early support, participants noted that many of these challenges require a whole-of-society response that extends well beyond what local governments can do alone, reinforcing the need for coordinated action across platforms, sectors and levels of government.

Next Steps

The session underscored that countering online harms is not a technical challenge alone, but a governance and relationship challenge rooted in trust, presence and coordination. While online harms are shaped by global platforms and dynamics beyond municipal control, their consequences are felt most acutely at the local level. Mayors and local governments are uniquely positioned to convene actors, model civility, communicate clearly in moments of uncertainty and invest in the social and relational infrastructure that prevents harm from escalating. The discussion reaffirmed that effective prevention depends on sustained leadership, education, dialogue and multi-level collaboration, and that cities cannot be left to shoulder these responsibilities alone.

Key next steps for the Strong Cities Network include:

• Collating and sharing best practices, case studies and practical tools from cities on preventing and responding to online harms, with a focus on mayoral leadership, crisis response, digital literacy and whole-of-city coordination.
• Supporting cities to strengthen crisis response, communications and prevention strategies that address the link between online harms and offline violence.
• Creating structured peer learning opportunities for mayors and other senior city leaders to share practical tools, policy approaches and governance models for countering online harms and rebuilding trust.

Additional Resources

Recent Strong Cities policy briefs and resources:

• City Leadership in Partnering with Local Communities for Social Cohesion: Ten Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• National-Local Cooperation: Opportunities and Lessons Learned for Secondary and Tertiary Prevention, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• City Leadership in the Face of Rising Incivility and Polarisation: Ten Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• Innovations in Prevention: Piloting Multi-Actor Frameworks in Small and Mid-Sized Cities in the United States, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• A Toolkit for Cities: Building a Multi-Actor Local Prevention Framework, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• A Toolkit for Manitoba Municipalities: Addressing Anti-Government Hate and Harassment, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• A Guide for Cities: Preventing Hate, Extremism & Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, updated 2025
• A Guide for Mayors: Preventing and Responding to Hate, Extremism & Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, updated 2025
• A Guide for City-Led Response, Strong Cities Network, May 2024
• City Spotlights Library, Strong Cities Network

Donors & Partners

The Sixth Global Summit was co-hosted with the City of Toronto and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and delivered with generous support from the Government of Canada, The Fourth Freedom Forum, The Toronto Foundation and Charities Aid Foundation.

Contact Information 

For more information about the Sixth Global Summit or the Strong Cities Network, please contact [email protected].

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