Opinion: Peace through social media

It is important to understand the virtual environment of a conflict and how it affects people to promote peace

By Dr Suman Kumar Kasturi

Contemporary society has seen the sway of social media, the mouthpiece of all those who advocate free speech. Free speech, on the one hand, has led to harmful content and disinformation on social media, resulting in cybernetic conflicts — profoundly impacting people’s lives beyond virtual interactions. On the other, the same social media has paved the way for propagating peace.

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Social media has set forth various applications to every section of society — equally accessible to both conflict squads and peacemakers ie, the community as a whole to engage in both peace and combat exertions. On the flip side, it risks the stakeholders for the reason that conflicts have become more prolonged and harder to resolve or cease.
Social media, part of information and communications technology (ICT), has introduced new complexities and facilitated the emergence of new norms, particularly in response to issues like uneven internet access, hate speech and propaganda.

Russia-Ukraine War

Even though every country in principle recognises the importance of free speech, when it comes to practice, there are many exceptions as governments have to safeguard the overall interest of the nation. In such a situation, how governments tolerate hostile views or perilous voices reflects their approach to how they treat human rights.

The Russia-Ukraine war is a fine example to understand whether the restrictions imposed by governments on free speech on social media bring about a meaningful solution. Social media has played a decisive role since the commencement of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Social networking sites have been flooded with testaments of war victims and refugees besides videos of battles and bombings, memes and messages about the conflict.

The conflict has also led to organised propaganda campaigns which were diffused rapidly around the globe, mainly through social media sock puppets — fake online identities to manipulate discussions or opinions. The entire situation has laid the foundation for another concurrent study of how social media sock puppets play a role in information warfare. Nonetheless, in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, information warfare has not been limited to conventional propaganda. It correspondingly arrayed on deplatformisation, meaning the denial of access to delivery channels including social media networks.

Tool for Peace

There is no denying the fact that social media is still in its embryonic phase when considered as a tool for peace. However, it is an equally significant fact that social media has already been established as a powerful tool in various other fields. Thus, extending social media applications to peacemaking through all stakeholders, including social media users and mediators, would persuasively establish fruitful dialogue and mediation processes.

As mentioned earlier, the media landscape is radically changing with more and more people receiving information through web channels, posing a major challenge to the mainstream media. After all, cyberspace has its own rules and norms. The powerful smartphones present in every household and their social media applications have turned everyone into a consumer of online content. Ubiquity and interactivity are the two significant characteristics of social media that make virtual influencers a big thing on online platforms who play the role of peer leaders.

To promote peace through social media, it is important to understand the virtual environment of a conflict, and how it affects people. Also, there is a need to examine platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and X (erstwhile Twitter), for these platforms have become important tools of public diplomacy making it challenging for peacemakers how to use these applications. Indubitably, social media has become an important mobilising force in driving debates, social movements and political change. However, from the other end, they are also used to incite violence, divide societies and act as a campaigner for recruitment to armed groups.

Diverse Voices

Conflict-affected groups and peacekeepers can have access to social media to present their distinct narratives of conflict and peace efforts to influence people across the world. Conversely, complete deplatformisation, ie, removing or restricting an individual, group or organisation entirely from social media, would hamper such liberty.

Unhindered information sharing has its advantages as well as disadvantages. Social media allows diverse voices to be heard more than the conventional media. This helps in levelling the playing field. This way, social media allows people across the world to share their narratives and perspectives, and provides a means for fostering dialogue. It also enhances data collection and conflict analysis.

As a peacemaker tool, social media can help build trust and confidence by creating direct and inclusive channels of communication and dialogue among the participants, especially in the initial stages of a conflict. It enables the Peace Corps to reach out to a wide range of audiences and get a better understanding of conflict situations, thereby facilitating peacemakers to counter both misinformation and disinformation.

In sum, social media can reach even the far-flung areas to promote peace. Many peacemakers have been using social media channels effectively to support peaceful protests and defend democracy. This online frontline has an enormous potential to institute the ‘sinews of peace.’

(The author, an air veteran, is an Independent Researcher)