How can the way we govern digital platforms shape peace and conflict? Online platforms shape how we connect and how we see the world, ourselves, and others. At times, online harms can fuel tensions that spill into real-world violence. So how can peacebuilders play a more active role in shaping the regulation of these platforms … Read more
How can peacemakers effectively integrate digital communications, data technologies and AI into peacemaking policies, strategies, legal frameworks, practice and capabilities? We will be exploring this and more in an upcoming Accord publication, a collaboration between Build Up and Conciliation Resources. Want to get a preview? Join us for a 90 minute open meeting (join for … Read more
This publication was co-edited by Build Up and ICIP. Fundamentally, social media trends are about a consensus held by a specific group. In the peacebuilding field, we worry about how misinformation erodes truth, damages institutions, and leads to violence. But it’s essential to dig a little deeper into the causes for this erosion of truth. … Read more
This paper was written by Julie Hawke and Helena Puig Larrauri. Current platform policies reinforce conflict models that are both dyadic – framing disputes as occurring between two opposing parties – and agentic – treating individuals as the primary drivers of conflict escalation or resolution. In ‘The Third Side’, William Uryargues that we can’t think … Read more
This paper was written by Julie Hawke, Mira El Mawla, Caleb Gichuhi and Helena Puig Larrauri. The presentation of online hate signals the structure and intensity of societal divisions, but when these seeds of discord are planted, what constitutes a fertile soil to grow and spread? This chapter examines the composition of online affective polarization … Read more
This paper was written Jonathan Stray, Ravi Iyer & Helena Puig Larrauri, Knight Institute. Social media platforms are involved in all aspects of social life, including in conflict settings. Incidental choices about how they are designed can have profound effects on people when conflict has the potential to escalate to violence. We review theories of … Read more