Digital security training and social media advocacy in Afghanistan

AI, disinformation, misinformation and hate speech, Activities, Advisory ICT, Capacity Building ICT, Advisory, Capacity Building, Crisis Information Management Capacity Building, Responding to/preventing Violent Extremism using ICTs and the Internet, ICTs and Human Rights Protection, New media for crisis management and peacebuilding

17. February 2017

Image courtesy Linkedin

Sanjana Hattotuwa, a Special Advisor at the ICT4Peace Foundation, has visited and trained activists and leading journalists in Afghanistan since 2015. Having visited the country over six times, Sanjana has worked with media to develop their capacity to report in a timely, accurate and impartial manner especially over social media. Sanjana has worked with Pajhwok, the NAI network, CSOs and NGOs from across the country as well as academics, journalists and activists from many Provinces.

Sanjana’s work is primarily anchored to digital security – devising organic, sustainable and contextually relevant means to ensure source protection, the confidentiality of communications, and integrity of information in transit, at the point of production and in the course of a media cycle. In addition, he helps anchor news and content production to social media platforms, and looks at Facebook in particular. Sanjana’s expertise lies in strategic content development for textual, audio, photographic and video material that takes advantage of what in the past months has been a rapid growth in those who access Facebook as their primary means of getting news and information.

For activists and those in civil society, Sanjana teaches new media skills, including the production of content for dissemination over mobile based instant messaging services, online social media, online polling, and counter-messaging around the prevention of or countering violence extremism (PVE / CVE). This follows from his work in Sri Lanka as well as Myanmar anchored to similar issues and challenges.

Sanjana last visited Kabul in early February, where conversations around false and fake news were on the lips of many, including the need to strengthen basic media literacy especially in a context where social media content was increasingly influencing political opinions and also real world reactions. He has been tasked with developing a strategic briefing note and presentation around how the fake news phenomenon can be tackled in the context of Afghanistan, to the extent possible, and especially over pervasive and persuasive social media vectors.