ICT4Peace is pleased that Special Advisor Sanjana Hattottuwa has published Policy Brief by Toda Peace Institute and the Alliance for Peacebuilding on social media and violence during elections, anchored to his home country, Sri Lanka. The brief, Digital Blooms: Social Media and Violence in Sri Lanka, can be accessed as a PDF here.
The policy brief outlines key snapshots of Sri Lanka’s social media landscape as it stood at the time of writing, in early August 2018, and offers some recommendations aimed at civil society’s use of social media for conflict transformation. Sanjana’s key recommendations include,
- Challenge simplistic conflict analyses that blame social media.
- Recognize that basic principles of effective communication are essential, even on social media.
- Strengthen media literacy and communications planning.
- Build civil society capacity in social media.
- Develop local approaches to misinformation and hate speech.
- Contextually determine the best social media platform, message form, and language.
- Develop visual types of social media content.
- Social media posts can make a difference even without paid “boosts.”
- Design social media to harness our “better angels.”
Download the full policy brief for details and other key observations, that though anchored to Sri Lanka, are more broadly applicable.
