2021: A pandemic’s expansion, an infodemic’s entrenchment, and increased efforts to improve global governance of cyberspace
Year End Review
2021 marked the entrenchment and expansion not just of the Delta strain of Covid-19, but of a global infodemic – a parallel phenomenon no less virulent, and violent to the health of democracy. The seed and spread of online harms took place at pace, with the pandemic testing, and laying bare social inequity and inequality that had festered for decades. Misinformation and disinformation took full advantage of existing socio-political instability in order to stoke increasingly violent vaccine resistance. At the same time, 2021 saw an increase in activities on the parts of multilateral and non-state actors in further developing norms for responsible behaviour in cyberspace and making online spaces more safe and secure. Along those lines, ICT4Peace Foundation participated actively in cyber global governance efforts, stepped up its efforts in building the capacities of diplomatic actors primarily located in developing countries through the launch of ICT4Peace Academy, contributed to important research projects promoting protection of human rights and published numerous articles and papers exposing online threats and offering recommendations to counter them. Here follows a short recap of some of ICT4Peace’s main activities over the course of 2021.
ICT4Peace kicked of the year with a joint project with the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders entitled Women, Peace, and Security and Human Rights in the Digital Age: Opportunities and risks to advance women’s meaningful participation and protect their rights. The project was supported by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and aimed to document how women peacebuilders use ICTs in peace negotiations, implementation of peace agreements and advocacy for the advancement of gender equality. The project carried out two in-depth case studies of women’s peacebuilding groups in Colombia and the Philippines, as well as conducted over 80 interviews with women peacebuilders in another 20 countries. The project had as its overall objective to provide concrete recommendations to support women’s safe and meaningful participation in peace processes through the use of new technologies. Rounding out the month of January, ICT4Peace received an invitation from Parliamentarians for Non-Nuclear-proliferation and Disarmament, Geneva Center for Security Policy, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the World Future Council to ICT4Peace’s Vice President Anne-Marie Buzatu to participate as a panellist in an online event on “The role of parliamentarians to advance disarmament in cyber-space.” The session was moderated by Marc Finaud. Head of Arms Proliferation, Geneva Centre for Security Policy and also included Saber Chowdhury MP, Honorary President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Co-President of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, Tilman Rodenhauser, Legal Adviser, International Committee of the Red Cross, and Arthur Duforest, Research Assistant, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament were also part of the event.
In February, Ms. Buzatu co-moderated with Dr Dapo Akande, professor of Public International Law at University of Oxford, a session on international law as part of the Informal Consultations on the Open-Ended Working Group on Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security (OEWG) “Zero Draft Report”. The online consultations included participants from governments, civil society and the private sector, and provided a platform for a rich and robust exchange on responsible State behaviour in cyberspace. In particular, many of the contributions found their way in the OEWG Final Substantive Report and the OEWG’s Chair’s Summary. February also saw ICT4Peace weighing in on the detrimental nature of hate speech for democracy.
March featured a significant conference on social media and democracy, in collaboration with the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago, curated by the Foundation’s Special Advisor, Dr. Sanjana Hattotuwa. Along with 2021 Nobel Peace Laureate Maria Ressa, leading figures from New Zealand and around the world spoke at the conference. As noted by one of the participants in an article capturing the conference, Legal, Policy and Trust Lead at Twitter Vijaya Gadde’s engagement was part of a “…high-level participation at the two-day conference by three of Twitter’s managers” in what was “one of the first times that Twitter has engaged in such a public forum to explain its stance on free speech since the US Capitol was stormed on January 6.” Joined by Kathleen Reen from Twitter, Vijaya Gadde engaged in a roughly 40-minute one-on-one, unscripted conversation with Sanjana, going over some of the most significant decisions the company had taken earlier this year as well as issues around human rights, due process, platform oversight, regulation, disinformation, misinformation, ethics, countering violent extremism and related topics. Rt. Hon. Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, recorded a special message for the conference. Furthermore, writing at the invitation of the Institute for Human Rights and Business, Special Advisor Dr. Hattotuwa looked at Facebook’s comprehensive human rights policy. He noted that “Facebook’s human rights commitments will be tested most not in the US or Europe but in significant markets like India and the Philippines with authoritarian leaders and that only time will reveal how far Facebook prioritises principles over profit. From reflections on the two-year anniversary of the consequential Christchurch Call, to discussions on lessons learned in peace technology and the most promising future initiatives (curated by SaferGlobe).
During the 12-16th of April, the Foundation held its second 5-Day Online Certificate Programme on International Cyber Diplomacy, Law and Norms for governmental representatives of the Organization of American States (OAS). The course featured several high-level guest speakers, including Ambassador Patriota from Brazil who chaired the 2019-2020 UN Group of Government Experts on Advancing Responsible State Behaviour in Cyberspace in the Context of International Security. ICT4Peace’s Sanjana Hattotuwa was also invited in April to participate in an online session, conducted by the ICRC’s DigitHarium, to discuss how misinformation, disinformation and hate speech are affecting people affected by crises, conflict dynamics, and humanitarian operations. The debate explored how humanitarian organizations can understand “information disorders”, their main drivers and their likely consequences, as well as how they can be addressed as part of broader protection and assistance programming.
In May, Julia Hofstetter, Senior Advisor at ICT4Peace released ‘Digital Technologies, Peacebuilding and Civil Society – Addressing Digital Conflict Drivers and Moving the Digital Peacebuilding Agenda Forward’. In it, Hofstetter explored how to shift from ‘inclusion’ of civil society to ‘agency’ in and through digital peacebuilding in practice, will have to take centre stage on the future agenda of digital peacebuilding. She noted that research on the digital divide and its implications for discrimination in digital peace-building should also include developing metrics to measure digital inclusion and the preconditions for access to participatory digital processes. Also in May, Anne-Marie Buzatu chaired an online session of Paris Call Working Group 3 on “Examples of multi-stakeholder governance and applicability to the UN negotiations on cyber”, supporting the continuation of the UN Negotiations with a strong multi-stakeholder approach.
In June, we were honoured that Dr. Hattotuwa was invited by New Zealand’s Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to write a policy brief on the occasion of He Whenua Taurikura, New Zealand’s first annual hui (meaning a large gathering in Māori) on countering terrorism and violent extremism, the presentation of which, to a large gathering in Christchurch, was well received. Aside from input into a significant report into New Zealand’s infodemic by the Classification Office, op-eds on disinformation and misinformation, and lectures to Universities on social media and democracy, the Foundation also launched a compilation of research, writing, presentations and other output around the March 2019 Christchurch massacre in New Zealand, that led to the formation of the Christchurch Call. Dr. Hattotuwa ended the year by providing a significant insights into the future of disinformation designs, and their evolution at pace.
Building on its previous rich experience in capacity building, ICT4Peace launched ICT4Peace Academy in July. The new initiative offers interactive, bespoke courses with contributions from subject matter experts to members of government, civil society and private sector institutions on a variety of topics related to ICTs including cyber-diplomacy, mis/disinformation and hate speech, gender and ICTs and cyber-neutrality. Since its launch, the Academy has experienced a high level of demand for its offerings, which occupied much of autumn 2021, and which is continuing in early 2022. Rounding out the summer, in August the Foundation obtained an important mandate from the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs to carry out a mapping study on private cyber security services. The final report is slated to be finished in summer of 2022.
In September, ICT4Peace’s Anne-Marie Buzatu participated in three working groups of the newly-established Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator: Quantum Revolution and Advanced Artificial Intelligence, Human Augmentation and Eco-regeneration and Geoengineering and contributed to the Scientific Anticipatory Briefs developed on these topics. September also saw the participation of Anne-Marie Buzatu in the XV International Forum of the National Association for International Information Security (NAIIS) in Moscow, where she gave remarks on how to improve oversight and accountability of State behaviour in cyberspace, further expounding upon ICT4Peace’s proposals to develop a Cyber Peer Review Mechanism for States modelled after the UN HRC’s UPR mechanism, as well as their Call to Action for States to publicly commit to not cyberattack any critical infrastructure installations.
In October, the Foundation contributed to and supported the Joint Statement of 13 Civil Society Organisations at the UN First Committee on Peace and Security in Cyberspace where it called for more robust and meaningful participation of non-state actors in UN multilateral discussions on Responsible State Behaviour in Cyberspace. Along with its partner organization GNWP, ICT4Peace also participated in the launch event for the policy brief on Women, Peace, and Security and Human Rights in the Digital Age: Opportunities and risks to advance women’s meaningful participation and protect their rights.
November was dominated by three week-long courses offered within the context of ICT4Peace Academy. During the week of 8-12 November, the Academy offered its Third Certificate Course on International Cyber Diplomacy, Law and Norms to government officials from OAS member states. ICT4Peace further expanded its course offerings in sub-Saharan Africa, offering a Level 2 course on International Cyber Diplomacy, Law and Norms to government representatives from East African States, as well as a Course to representatives from Southern African States. On the 12th of November, ICT4Peace’s Anne-Marie Buzatu had the honour of moderating a High-Level Panel at the Paris Peace Forum entitled: “Keeping cyber attackers at bay: Improving international norms for a safer cyberspace”. Amb Burhan Gafoor, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Singapore to the United Nations in New York, President Alar Karis of Estonia, Under Secretary-General of Disarmament Affairs to the UN Itzumi Nakamitsu, US Deputy National Security Advisor for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies Anne Neuberger and Microsoft President Brad Smith were the Panellists. Rounding out the month, Ms. Buzatu participated as a panellist at the Freedom Online Coalition Annual Meeting in a session entitled “Improving Transparency, Rights Protection, and Accountability in the Surveillance Tech Space”, moderated by David Kaye, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression (2014-2020), and current Independent Chair of the Global Network Initiative.
December rounded out the year with the first ICT4Peace Academy course taught in French, Programme en ligne de cinq jours : Cyber diplomatie, droit international et cyber norms, with the support of the Swiss FDFA and in cooperation with the French government and the Ecole Nationale Cybersécurité à Vocation Régionale in Dakar, Sénégal. On the 10th of December, Anne-Marie Buzatu also participated as a panellist on the International Code of Conduct Association’s Eighth AGA Closing Plenary – Rethinking Responsible Security in the Digital Era.
In December, ICT4Peace was proud to congratulate Sanjana Hattotuwa for obtaining his PhD degree from Otago University’s National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (NCPACS). The title of his thesis is “Liking hate? Social media, politics, and conflict in Sri Lanka” and investigates how content on Facebook and Twitter were shaped by and contributed to four of the most significant socio-political events in Sri Lanka, from 2018 to the end of 2019 and is contrasted with the content on Twitter published in New Zealand and globally after the Christchurch massacre in March 2019.
In a year defined by the magnitude of platform failures to contain and curtail the seed and spread of harms, the ICT4Peace Foundation continued to draw upon grounded research in the Global South to complicate, contextualise and critically engage with what were otherwise one-sided debates and media reportage. The Foundation’s contributions to a wide spectrum of cutting-edge, contemporary debates, issues, processes, platforms and programmes speaks to how my esteemed colleagues are globally, and within their respective countries of residence, recognised for their integrity, insights and intellectual rigour. I am proud that the Foundation is seen as a significant, trusted participant in and partner of peaceful, equitable, democratic outcomes. 2021 lost millions of lives, and I would be remiss if I didn’t reflect on how many of those lives could have been saved if we had been more equitable in our syndromic responses, and democratic in our systemic reform. I choose to risk disappointment to hope that 2022 brings with it the prospect of a better world, that even with a patina of catastrophic loss, has renewed hope in the power of our better angels, including through technology, to help usher just peace, and healthy societies.
Daniel Stauffacher
Founder and President, ICT4Peace Foundation
23 December 2021