RIO DE JANEIRO (UPI) -- Racially charged insults on social media aimed at a Brazilian broadcaster inspired a group of activists to place billboards with offenders' Facebook comments near their homes.

Brazilian social activism group Criola sought to raise awareness about racism with a campaign entitled "Virtual racism, real consequences".

"We omitted names and faces of the authors - we had no intention of exposing them," a post on the campaign's website read. We just wanted to raise awareness and start a discussion, in order to make people think about the consequences before posting this kind of comments on the internet. Because, after all, the worst enemy of racism is silence.

The group, founded mostly by Afro-Brazilian women, launched the campaign after a Brazilian weather presenter was faced with a slew of negative comments after the news station posted a photo of her to Facebook.

The event occurred on July 3, which happens to be a national day promoting anti-racism practices.

Project coordinator and Criola founder Jurema Werneck told BBC that the intent of the campaign was to shine a light on racist commenters as well as those who failed to see the harm in the hateful comments.

"Those people think they can sit in the comfort of their homes and do whatever they want on the Internet," she said. We don't let that happen. They can't hide from us, we will find them.

Copyright 2015 by United Press International