Periodic Reporting for period 3 - ConflictNET (The Politics and Practice of Social Media in Conflict)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2020-08-01 do 2022-01-31
There are unprecedented efforts to extend the reach of the Internet to the world’s most remote regions. These efforts largely build on a conception of the Internet and social media as ‘liberation technologies’ that can help people realize human rights, improve access to services or reduce corruption.. However, there has been far less discussion about the impact of extending Internet access to conflict-affected regions where the state is weak or has limited reach.
The ConflictNET team has the unique opportunity to follow, in real-time, ambitious efforts to extend the Internet to some of the world’s most challenging areas and ask difficult questions that are often overlooked. The central research question therefore asks: How does increased access to social media affect the balance between peace-building efforts and attempts to perpetuate violence in conflict-affected communities?
The project is structured around four main research themes. It blends online research investigating how a technical, ideational and legal framework is being created to encourage certain uses while discouraging others, with the offline implications of social media and new technologies, grounding their use in the everyday politics and practices in conflict-affected societies.
1. Tactics and Strategies to Shape the Information Environment: Maps the tactics and strategies of different actors (e.g. companies, governments, international organizations, terrorist groups) in conflict settings as they use and respond to the increasing importance of social media, and how they may attempt to extend or restrict their use. This WP focuses on efforts to shape the information environment in ways that can favour specific uses of the Internet and social media, while discouraging others.
2. Conflict and Peace Online: Analyses the online dimensions of conflict, its calls for offline actions (such as calls for violence, encouraging peace or promoting political agendas) and how social media are changing (either empowering or disempowering) who has a voice in conflict. It focuses on developing innovative methods for looking at hate speech online.
3. Local Governance: Power and Resilience: Identifies patterns and changes in how different actors are innovating to use social media to extend power and influence and affect violence, governance, security and justice in areas of conflict.
4. Migration: Opportunities for Exit and Entry: Works towards understanding whether and how social media are changing the networks and opportunities for exit from, and entry to, conflict-affected communities. This includes refugees fleeing violence as well as individuals returning to participate in conflicts or contribute to peace.
This project addresses many critical issues that societies around the world are grappling with, including how to address online hate speech that might lead to violence and how social media is changing the ways people migrate, particularly from the Horn of Africa to other countries in Africa and Europe. It also focuses on very contemporary issues such as the growing trend of internet shutdowns. In many respects the future of the internet is being fought and debated at the peripheries- in Africa- and this project engages with some of the most critical issues that are arising there with implications for all citizens across Europe.
As a way of bringing the unmediated voices of migrants to the fore, the project has established an online collection of videos, poetry, songs and stories about migration trajectories that is available on the project website.
The ConflictNET team has the unique opportunity to follow, in real-time, ambitious efforts to extend the Internet to some of the world’s most challenging areas and ask difficult questions that are often overlooked. The central research question therefore asks: How does increased access to social media affect the balance between peace-building efforts and attempts to perpetuate violence in conflict-affected communities?
The project is structured around four main research themes. It blends online research investigating how a technical, ideational and legal framework is being created to encourage certain uses while discouraging others, with the offline implications of social media and new technologies, grounding their use in the everyday politics and practices in conflict-affected societies.
1. Tactics and Strategies to Shape the Information Environment: Maps the tactics and strategies of different actors (e.g. companies, governments, international organizations, terrorist groups) in conflict settings as they use and respond to the increasing importance of social media, and how they may attempt to extend or restrict their use. This WP focuses on efforts to shape the information environment in ways that can favour specific uses of the Internet and social media, while discouraging others.
2. Conflict and Peace Online: Analyses the online dimensions of conflict, its calls for offline actions (such as calls for violence, encouraging peace or promoting political agendas) and how social media are changing (either empowering or disempowering) who has a voice in conflict. It focuses on developing innovative methods for looking at hate speech online.
3. Local Governance: Power and Resilience: Identifies patterns and changes in how different actors are innovating to use social media to extend power and influence and affect violence, governance, security and justice in areas of conflict.
4. Migration: Opportunities for Exit and Entry: Works towards understanding whether and how social media are changing the networks and opportunities for exit from, and entry to, conflict-affected communities. This includes refugees fleeing violence as well as individuals returning to participate in conflicts or contribute to peace.
This project addresses many critical issues that societies around the world are grappling with, including how to address online hate speech that might lead to violence and how social media is changing the ways people migrate, particularly from the Horn of Africa to other countries in Africa and Europe. It also focuses on very contemporary issues such as the growing trend of internet shutdowns. In many respects the future of the internet is being fought and debated at the peripheries- in Africa- and this project engages with some of the most critical issues that are arising there with implications for all citizens across Europe.
As a way of bringing the unmediated voices of migrants to the fore, the project has established an online collection of videos, poetry, songs and stories about migration trajectories that is available on the project website.
The ConflictNET project is proceeding well. When the project was initially proposed, the world of social media and new technologies in Africa was significantly different. The story of Cambridge Analytica was yet to emerge, the use of Artificial Intelligence in Africa was on the horizon, but not to the extent it is now, and internet shutdowns were isolated events and not nearly as prevalent as the 213 shutdowns witnessed in 33 countries in 2019 (Access Now). Within the framework of the ConflictNet proposal, we have had to adapt to a rapidly changing technological space and political context. We were well aware of this possibility, as anticipated when we started, but we have had to innovate and be responsive to a rapidly shifting environment.
The project began by focusing on the first two work packages including the development of a conceptual framework focusing on new technologies in conflict-affected regions and research on the tactics and strategies to shape the internet in Africa. Our focus has been on understanding the legal environment (including the role of non-state law), the relationship between online speech and offline violence, as well as how Artificial Intelligence is beginning to alter the governance environment. We have probed key trends, such as the growing phenomenon of internet shutdowns in Africa as a means of information control, particularly in conflict situations, as well as broader efforts by international actors to shape internet governance on the continent.
We subsequently moved into an ambitious effort to understand how (as well as how not) the internet and social media has been transforming migration, with a special focus on migration within Africa and between Africa and Europe. We have also examined the politics of return, an often neglected area that includes understanding how social media is altering peoples desires and efforts to return to their country of origin. Dozens of interviews have been conducted in Nairobi, Johannesburg and Milan. The project also launched an online observatory that has collected and curated content, including poems, videos, and stories by migrants about their journey. How this experience has been affected by Covid19 will be considered as the project advances.
After developing conceptual and theoretical frameworks, the project has turned its focus to considering online dimensions of conflict, including online hate speech and the role of algorithms. The project also adopts a bottom-up approach to new technologies, including AI and social media, to understand how governance (both formal and informal) is being transformed.
The PI has assembled a large transnational team involving researchers in Africa and Europe, with a range of disciplinary backgrounds (from legal scholars to anthropologists) and collaborates closely with visiting scholars and PhD students.
The project began by focusing on the first two work packages including the development of a conceptual framework focusing on new technologies in conflict-affected regions and research on the tactics and strategies to shape the internet in Africa. Our focus has been on understanding the legal environment (including the role of non-state law), the relationship between online speech and offline violence, as well as how Artificial Intelligence is beginning to alter the governance environment. We have probed key trends, such as the growing phenomenon of internet shutdowns in Africa as a means of information control, particularly in conflict situations, as well as broader efforts by international actors to shape internet governance on the continent.
We subsequently moved into an ambitious effort to understand how (as well as how not) the internet and social media has been transforming migration, with a special focus on migration within Africa and between Africa and Europe. We have also examined the politics of return, an often neglected area that includes understanding how social media is altering peoples desires and efforts to return to their country of origin. Dozens of interviews have been conducted in Nairobi, Johannesburg and Milan. The project also launched an online observatory that has collected and curated content, including poems, videos, and stories by migrants about their journey. How this experience has been affected by Covid19 will be considered as the project advances.
After developing conceptual and theoretical frameworks, the project has turned its focus to considering online dimensions of conflict, including online hate speech and the role of algorithms. The project also adopts a bottom-up approach to new technologies, including AI and social media, to understand how governance (both formal and informal) is being transformed.
The PI has assembled a large transnational team involving researchers in Africa and Europe, with a range of disciplinary backgrounds (from legal scholars to anthropologists) and collaborates closely with visiting scholars and PhD students.
This research is challenging given how fast moving the field is and how contemporary (and often sensitive) the issues are.
Some examples as to how this project is moving beyond the state of the art include:
- The research on migration and social media is overturning many assumptions about how social media facilitates (or not) migratory pathways and we are able to identify strong differences in Somali migration and the role of social media to Italy, Kenya and South Africa (all major destinations) and the particular importance of social media and the politics of refugee return to Somalia. For the first time, we are trying to bring together the voices of East African migrants (unmediated by international media)
- We are identifying new methods to research online hate speech that move beyond the more manual ways (human coders) and the growing emphasis on automation to look at bottom up understandings of hate speech and human flagging. This is a novel approach with the unique potential to better understand local and highly contextual definitions of hate speech and understanding the gap between why people flag hateful content comparatively frequently in Europe with Africa (where users of social media rarely flag hate speech yet are highly exposed to it).
-We are adopting critical and new perspectives to internet censorship particularly in situations of mass violence. We have used internet shutdowns as an entry point into broader discussions about the responsibility of social media companies, governments, and civil society to address online hate speech, and we are drawing on historical precedents for censoring mass media (eg radio and television) in situations of extreme conflict.
The project is based on a bottom up spirit and focuses on engaging communities, researchers and those affected by conflict in Africa as much as possible. We have been collecting the voices of migrants (through interviews, songs, poems, videos, etc) that will contribute to an online social media and conflict observatory. We have also established networks with policymakers and advocates to increase the impact of the research with, for example, international organizations such as the International Red Cross, the Cultural Video Foundation, and the Media Institute of Southern Africa. This network will become increasingly important as the publications are released to ensure impact beyond the academic community. We are also deeply committed to fair sharing principles and ensuring that the research contributes to the communities being researched through co-authoring publications with local researchers and organizing research events on the continent.
Some examples as to how this project is moving beyond the state of the art include:
- The research on migration and social media is overturning many assumptions about how social media facilitates (or not) migratory pathways and we are able to identify strong differences in Somali migration and the role of social media to Italy, Kenya and South Africa (all major destinations) and the particular importance of social media and the politics of refugee return to Somalia. For the first time, we are trying to bring together the voices of East African migrants (unmediated by international media)
- We are identifying new methods to research online hate speech that move beyond the more manual ways (human coders) and the growing emphasis on automation to look at bottom up understandings of hate speech and human flagging. This is a novel approach with the unique potential to better understand local and highly contextual definitions of hate speech and understanding the gap between why people flag hateful content comparatively frequently in Europe with Africa (where users of social media rarely flag hate speech yet are highly exposed to it).
-We are adopting critical and new perspectives to internet censorship particularly in situations of mass violence. We have used internet shutdowns as an entry point into broader discussions about the responsibility of social media companies, governments, and civil society to address online hate speech, and we are drawing on historical precedents for censoring mass media (eg radio and television) in situations of extreme conflict.
The project is based on a bottom up spirit and focuses on engaging communities, researchers and those affected by conflict in Africa as much as possible. We have been collecting the voices of migrants (through interviews, songs, poems, videos, etc) that will contribute to an online social media and conflict observatory. We have also established networks with policymakers and advocates to increase the impact of the research with, for example, international organizations such as the International Red Cross, the Cultural Video Foundation, and the Media Institute of Southern Africa. This network will become increasingly important as the publications are released to ensure impact beyond the academic community. We are also deeply committed to fair sharing principles and ensuring that the research contributes to the communities being researched through co-authoring publications with local researchers and organizing research events on the continent.