Sanjana Hattotuwa, Senior Advisor at the ICT4Peace Foundation, was invited by Democracy Reporting International (DRI) to deliver a presentation on the role, reach and relevance of social media in Sri Lanka’s electoral processes, as well as threats, challenges and opportunities in the use of social media around elections.
The workshop was divided into two parts – one, the problems around the content seed, spread and engaged with on social media. The other, opportunities as a consequence of social media’s increasing use in electoral processes, around voter education and electoral integrity.
Sanjana anchored his presentation to primary research and data collection anchored to the recently concluded Presidential Election in Sri Lanka, covering Facebook in the main, but also embracing YouTube, Instagram and Twitter.
Representatives from government, civil society and donors in Myanmar talked about how best to secure democratic processes and the exercise of franchise from disinformation campaigns, hacking and voter suppression. Issues related to hate speech were also discussed. Sanjana tackled issues outlined in a presentation delivered to the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) in Sri Lanka, flagged that many of the challenges, data signatures, dynamics, threats and challenges seen in 2019 would be those that would mirror, in perhaps more sophisticated forms, what Myanmar could see around its election in 2020.