Pro-Democracy Platform Advocacy: Fostering Social Media's Accountability to Dissident Voices under Authoritarianism

Project Information

ProPA

Grant agreement ID: 101062975

DOI

10.3030/101062975

Project closed

EC signature date 12 August 2022

Start date 1 September 2023

End date 31 August 2025

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 191 760,00

Coordinated by

VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ProPA (Pro-Democracy Platform Advocacy: Fostering Social Media's Accountability to Dissident Voices under Authoritarianism)

Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2025-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Digital platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, have long touted themselves as defenders of freedom of expression, yet their content moderation rules have faced global criticism, amongst others for failing to tackle authoritarian repression of dissident voices. Government trolls successfully run malicious reporting campaigns that result in the platforms’ removal of activists’ posts and accounts. Meanwhile, civil society under authoritarianism lacks means of legal recourse and can only engage in international advocacy to urge social media companies to implement safeguards. To which extent have advocacy efforts for protection of pro-democracy content led to changes in digital platforms’ content moderation rules? Have these changes resulted in a more open online civic space for pro-democracy activism? What limitations remain? To address these questions and foster platform accountability for vulnerable users, Dr. Mai Van Tran worked under Prof. Trisha Meyer’s supervision at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) - Centre for Digitalisation, Democracy and Innovation (CD2I) at Brussels School of Governance (BSoG) and Sam Gregory’s secondment supervision at WITNESS Inc. to achieve two main R&I objectives. First, the project built and tested a theoretical model of pro-democracy platform advocacy, based on primary data from Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia and secondary data from Hong Kong, Palestinian, and other Global South-based human rights advocates regarding pro-democracy advocacy efforts towards Facebook/Meta, Twitter/X, Telegram, YouTube, TikTok, etc. Second, the findings were turned into two academic articles, a book chapter, a best practice guide for pro-democracy activists, a set of policy recommendations for social media companies, and a set of Digital Defence Resources for social media users. One academic article is published open-access on Open Research Europe, the best practice guide is published open-access on Tech Policy Press, and the Digital Defence Resources is available at digidef.info and as a Telegram chatbot. Moreover, the project disseminated and exploited the research results via presentations at fifteen academic conferences and workshops, three multistakeholder conferences, four facilitation workshops and activities with activists, and three meetings with social media companies.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

R&I Objective 1 (achieved) was to build and test a theoretical model of pro-democracy platform advocacy, based on original evidence from three cases of Asian pro-democracy movements (Myanmar, Thailand, and Hong Kong) and their advocacy toward three social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram). The project achieved the objective by building and testing a theoretical model of pro-democracy platform advocacy. The mixed methods analysis is based on primary data from Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia and secondary data from Hong Kong, Palestinian, and other Global South-based human rights advocates regarding pro-democracy advocacy efforts towards Facebook/Meta, Twitter/X, Telegram, YouTube, TikTok, etc.

R&I Objective 2 (achieved) was to turn the findings into two open-access academic articles and three applied innovations, including a best practice guide for pro-democracy activists, a set of policy recommendations for social media companies, and a digital advocacy resource for social media users. The project achieved Objective 2 by turning the findings into two academic articles, one book chapter, one best practice guide for pro-democracy activists, one set of policy recommendations for social media companies, and one set of Digital Defence Resources for social media users. One academic article is published open-access on Open Research Europe, the best practice guide is published open-access on Tech Policy Press, and the Digital Defence Resources is available at digidef.info and as a Telegram chatbot.

Training Objective 1 (achieved) was to gain a solid theoretical foundation in internet governance. I achieved the objective by attending Prof. Trisha Meyer’s “Internet Censorship, Control, and Governance” course and integrated findings from twenty books and articles to build my model of pro-democracy platform advocacy. A theoretical model on pro-democracy platform advocacy was produced, revised based on Prof. Meyer’s feedback, and finalised.

Training Objective 2 (achieved) was to upgrade my digital methods, especially in collecting and analysing non-Facebook contents. I achieved the objective by attending Prof. Laurence Claeys’s “Digital Methods and Innovation” course and “Introduction to R” course. The courses equipped me with relevant data science techniques in gathering, cleaning, analysing, and visualizing social media posts, hashtags, comments, and hyperlinks. After the course, a social media content analysis was produced, revised based on feedback by the co-instructor, and finalised.

Training Objective 3 (achieved) was to develop my transferrable skills. I achieved the objective by attending VUB’s four transferrable skill courses, leading the project’s external presentations, meetings, and workshops, and taking part in project management. These activities helped me to develop my interpersonal skills, effectively communicate my research findings, coach mentees to build their independence, and learn best approaches to tackle conflicts and manage tasks.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project achieved its short-term scientific impact and its outputs (including open-access article, policy recommendation, and Digital Defence Resources) are promising in delivering medium-term and long-term impacts as outlined in the DOA across scientific, technological, and societal domains. Regarding the short-term scientific impact, the open-access article on the dynamics of pro-democracy platform advocacy indeed challenged the conventional model of “North-South” transnational advocacy and provided an alternative model of horizontal solidarity among activists in the developing world. It highlighted the capacity of repressed communities across authoritarian regimes to assist and elevate one another, and more importantly, build a highly influential political campaign toward powerful Western corporations. Moreover, it challenged the prevailing knowledge on internet governance that came from Western democratic context and served to increase the discipline’s global relevance as the majority of internet users live under non-democratic regimes. Last but not least, in the medium term, the method memos from this research would contribute to furthering measures to minimize security risks to vulnerable social media users whose content might be collected for research without consent.