UGANDA AND SOMALIA - GLOBAL PULSE’S QATALOG TOOL

Social media and radio talk show monitoring can provide valuable information to mediators in contexts where access is difficult, and the information landscape fragmented. When mined carefully, these two data-sources can provide insights into people's lifestyles, priorities, and sentiments. In specific contexts where internet penetration is low, the combination of radio and social media is particularly valuable, as radio shows can give access to the voices of local populations who do not have internet access, while social media feeds can provide insights into the views of diasporas and official actors (government, NGO, media, etc.).

UN Global Pulse (UNGP) is developing a tool called Qatalog to extract, analyse, and visualise data from these sources. It uses speech recognition technology developed by UNGP through its Pulse Lab Kampala that 1) ‘listens’ to public radio broadcasts, and 2) automates the detection of words spoken during talk shows. Qatalog also pulls in public Facebook posts, as well as Twitter streams, building on one of several partnerships established by UNGP with private sector data providers and software companies for the UN system.

The name Qata-log describes the main analytic pipeline: Query, Assign, Tag, and Analyse. The tool currently allows analysts to extract useful information from the large amounts of data collected from social media and radio feeds, and analyse it for topics of interest using a combination of optimized manual annotations techniques, and automatic helpers that include translation, geolocation and machine-learning-driven text classification. Users can visualise the volumes of annotated content over time and space, and can download the raw data for further analysis. The tool has been piloted with UN teams and agencies in Somalia and Uganda, and is continuously refined based on UN system partner feedback.

Source: UN Global Pulse

UGANDA AND SOMALIA - GLOBAL PULSE’S QATALOG TOOL

Social media and radio talk show monitoring can provide valuable information to mediators in contexts where access is difficult, and the information landscape fragmented. When mined carefully, these two data-sources can provide insights into people's lifestyles, priorities, and sentiments. In specific contexts where internet penetration is low, the combination of radio and social media is particularly valuable, as radio shows can give access to the voices of local populations who do not have internet access, while social media feeds can provide insights into the views of diasporas and official actors (government, NGO, media, etc.).

UN Global Pulse (UNGP) is developing a tool called Qatalog to extract, analyse, and visualise data from these sources. It uses speech recognition technology developed by UNGP through its Pulse Lab Kampala that 1) ‘listens’ to public radio broadcasts, and 2) automates the detection of words spoken during talk shows. Qatalog also pulls in public Facebook posts, as well as Twitter streams, building on one of several partnerships established by UNGP with private sector data providers and software companies for the UN system.

The name Qata-log describes the main analytic pipeline: Query, Assign, Tag, and Analyse. The tool currently allows analysts to extract useful information from the large amounts of data collected from social media and radio feeds, and analyse it for topics of interest using a combination of optimized manual annotations techniques, and automatic helpers that include translation, geolocation and machine-learning-driven text classification. Users can visualise the volumes of annotated content over time and space, and can download the raw data for further analysis. The tool has been piloted with UN teams and agencies in Somalia and Uganda, and is continuously refined based on UN system partner feedback.

Source: UN Global Pulse

SYRIA- LIVE UNIVERSAL AWARENESS MAP (LIVEUAMAP)

Liveuamap was created by a group of engineers and journalists during the Maidan protests in Kyiv in 2014. The primary aim was to find a way to inform the public on events taking place in Ukraine. The solution was an interactive software based on Google Maps and open data. The map identifies events related to the protests and relies primarily on social media geotags to determine location. This is done by an ‘AI web crawler’, which filters the relevant stories and transmits them to a group of analysts for fact checking. Hired editors determine which events should be displayed on the map in near real time. Interest in Liveumap increased as the protests eventually led to growing conflict in Ukraine. According to the website, Liveuamap now covers “more than 30 regions and topics, offers translations in several languages and can be used on mobile browsers via its own App”. The initial aim of the project gradually metamorphosed into an endeavour to help “predict and prevent future conflicts, minimize the impact of disasters and assist travellers around the world in making conscious decisions about their security throughout their journeys”.

In Syria, HD uses Liveuamap as a credible source of information to maintain an overview of developments. Information of interest is then verified by HD’s network of contacts. For example, when HD was working on ceasefire agreements for eastern Ghouta, it used Liveuamap to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire and to assess the feasibility of humanitarian corridors. HD also uses the tool to contribute to ensuring the security of its staff when travelling to Syria.

Source: HD

YEMEN AND CRITICAL INTERNET RESOURCES, 2014-2018

As territory has changed hands in Yemen, so too has control over critical IT infrastructure and internet resources. When the Houthi / Ansar Allah forces seized the capital city of Sana’a in 2014, they also gained control over Yemennet - the country’s main, state-owned and operated Internet Service Provider (ISP) that has served the country since 2001.

Information controls – which the Hadi government was already implementing prior to the Houthtakeover - are reported to have increased substantially since 2014. Content filtering now includes a wide variety of political content, and blocking of certain critical domains. All political filtering targeting local and regional news and media content is undertaken in a non-transparent way, with fake network error pages delivered back to users instead of block pages.

Houthi control over the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and related websites is also problematic and they have taken steps to shut off internet access entirely across their ISP control. For instance, on December 7, 2017, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology “initiated a shutdown of the internet for 30 minutes”. Prior to that, it had “disabled internet access to the port city of Aden”. Houthi rebels within Sana’a are also reportedly taking advantage of YemenNet’s vast IP infrastructure to host a cryptocurrency mining service to generate revenue.

The Hadi government, now in Aden, established a new ISP, AdenNet, in June 2018 as a means to influence information flows throughout the rest of the country and has made attempts to take control of critical cable infrastructure in one of the country’s strategic ports.

Sources: Citizen Lab, Recorded Future

UKRAINE- DONBASS DIALOGUE

The Donbass Dialogue (DD) is an innovative virtual dialogue platform created in April 2015 by three displaced persons from Donetsk city (non-government-controlled areas) who relocated to Svyatohorsk (government-controlled areas) in eastern Ukraine. The platform seeks to reconnect members of divided communities amid an ongoing conflict by using a sophisticated crowdsourcing methodology that identifies issues of mutual concern. The top issues are then addressed in greater detail during a week-long ‘offline dialogue’, which takes place twice per year. The ‘offline dialogue’ is conducted using a new-generation DD Talk service based on peer-to-peer technology (WebRTC), which allows anonymous connection without prior authorization and thus creates a seemingly ‘safe space’ for all dialogue participants, wherever they may be physically located. DD participants include community and civil society representatives, IDPs, volunteers, experts and others who believe that dialogue with the ‘other side’ – even during an active armed conflict – is a prerequisite for building a lasting peace. Since April 2015, seven such dialogues have taken place, and DD now includes more than 400 members in its virtual community. More information on the Dialogue can be found at: https://online-dialogue.org/; https://www.donbassdialog.org.ua/ and https://www.facebook.com/groups/DonbassDialog/

Source: UN Peace and Development Advisor, Ukraine

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC) - THE USE OF WHATSAPP DURING THE POLITICAL DIALOGUE, 2016

During the political dialogue led by the African Union-appointed facilitator (June-October 2016) in the DRC, the facilitator’s team was overwhelmed by requests from Congolese civil society and media representatives for accreditation to the dialogue process. The team accredited a reasonable number of journalists, but due to limited capacity and resources, many others - particularly those based outside of Kinshasa - could not be accredited.

To reach out to everyone, the communications team created a WhatsApp group. Through this platform, the communications team shared communiqués relating to the facilitation process as well as other important information, including meeting programmes and schedules. It became a platform on which members would instantly share documents, pictures and comments, including their perceptions about various aspects of the facilitation process. A Twitter account was also created to serve the same purpose.

Source: UN Standby Team of Mediation Experts

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC) - THE USE OF WHATSAPP DURING THE POLITICAL DIALOGUE, 2016

In Colombia, the negotiating parties set up a webpage to collect submissions from the public, as foreseen in the framework agreement, which stated: “To guarantee the widest possible participation, a mechanism will be established to receive, by physical or electronic means, proposals from citizens and organizations on the points of the agenda.”
The website provided a static but user-friendly form for making suggestions to the parties on any topic. It received 3,000 proposals in the first hours after it was launched and, for example, generated some 500 proposals just on the issue of land and agricultural reform. The website was also intended to serve as a platform for the parties to inform the public of their activities, joint statements, and agreements. While many key documents were usefully posted there, the site was unfortunately not updated frequently enough to fully and effectively serve its role.

Another challenge was the sheer number of submissions received. On the subject of victims and transitional justice, for example, the parties received a total of 23,000 submissions either through the website, physical submission of the same form, or in-person consultations. A total of 67,371 submissions were made on all issue areas. Both the FARC and the government dedicated time and resources to distill and give consideration to the proposals. The government contracted a Colombian NGO, Fundación Ideas para la Paz, to analyze and present summaries while the FARC prepared its own internal analysis and incorporated many into its own proposals. The parties also jointly established a project to organize all inputs to allow easier access and to preserve for future reference.

Source: UN Standby Team of Mediation Experts

COLOMBIA- NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT AND THE FARC, 2012-2016

In Colombia, the negotiating parties set up a webpage to collect submissions from the public, as foreseen in the framework agreement, which stated: “To guarantee the widest possible participation, a mechanism will be established to receive, by physical or electronic means, proposals from citizens and organizations on the points of the agenda.”
The website provided a static but user-friendly form for making suggestions to the parties on any topic. It received 3,000 proposals in the first hours after it was launched and, for example, generated some 500 proposals just on the issue of land and agricultural reform. The website was also intended to serve as a platform for the parties to inform the public of their activities, joint statements, and agreements. While many key documents were usefully posted there, the site was unfortunately not updated frequently enough to fully and effectively serve its role.

Another challenge was the sheer number of submissions received. On the subject of victims and transitional justice, for example, the parties received a total of 23,000 submissions either through the website, physical submission of the same form, or in-person consultations. A total of 67,371 submissions were made on all issue areas. Both the FARC and the government dedicated time and resources to distill and give consideration to the proposals. The government contracted a Colombian NGO, Fundación Ideas para la Paz, to analyze and present summaries while the FARC prepared its own internal analysis and incorporated many into its own proposals. The parties also jointly established a project to organize all inputs to allow easier access and to preserve for future reference.

Source: UN Standby Team of Mediation Experts

LIBYA- DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AND THE LIBYAN NATIONAL CONFERENCE PROCESS, 2018

In September 2017, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General to Libya announced an Action Plan for Libya. A key stage in this Action Plan was the organization of a National Conference Process (NCP). One notable innovation during the consultations of the NCP was the possibility for Libyans to contribute to the process online between April and July 2018. This measure helped to make the NCP more inclusive and transparent. It was important that the NCP provided different platforms and ways for people to contribute, rather than restricting participation to physical meetings. To achieve this, a website in Arabic was specifically designed by HD with parameters set to allow people with low-bandwidth to access and navigate it easily. The website included information about the NCP as well as the dates and locations of upcoming meetings, visual content from past events, meeting reports, and information about how Libyans could organize their own NCP events. Most importantly, the website included an online questionnaire through which Libyans could provide their insights on the questions included in the agenda for the consultations.

For politically and socially marginalised groups who might be cautious about attending meetings in person, the online platform offered the possibility to express their opinions. An outreach campaign was organized to ensure the broadest online participation. The website was also developed to ensure that participants located in areas where it was too dangerous to organize consultations could still participate. Half a million comments were generated in the course of 14 weeks on social media platforms and it is estimated that more than one million Libyans were reached. In addition, 1,700 questionnaires were completed on the Conference’s website, which made up 30% of the overall contributions to the consultative phase of the NCP.

Source: HD

EGYPT- DPPA MIDDLE EAST DIVISION’S SENTIMENT PROJECT AND DIGITAL FOCUS GROUPS

Since 2018, DPPA’s Middle East Division (MED) has been working with a consortium of universities and computational linguist experts on building a machine learning-based system for detecting and analyzing public opinions in the Arab world. The project focuses on opinion mining and sentiment analysis based on various social media sources. The project expands situational awareness and allows for early warning in peace mediation processes.

Source: UNDPPA MED

MYANMAR- VIRTUAL MAPPING OF WOMEN’S EXPERTISE AND INFLUENCE

In Myanmar, USAID, in collaboration with various actors, developed a virtual mapping of women’s expertise and influence, primarily relating to policy issues in the formal political dialogue. The objective was to refute the oft-cited claim that there are ‘no qualified women’. The project provided donors and implementing partners better information about whom to include in negotiations, training and other initiatives as participants and as resource persons. The process itself has also generated impact: training and network events contributed to extending their network base; furthered conversations about expertise, capacity, and inclusion, often navigating complex ethnic, racial and religious divisions and who gets to decide what is 'relevant experience' in a peace process; and more women are discussing security, economics and politics as issues of direct relevance to them, not just ‘social’ issues they are more frequently called on to represent. The initiative also helped end the isolation of women advocates, analysts, and activists.

Source: UN Standby Team of Mediation Experts

FIJI - WOMEN’S DIGITAL INCLUSION IN THE CONSTITUTION-MAKING PROCESS, 2012

In Fiji’s constitution-making process in 2012, Fijian women were actively engaged in the process and empowered to participate through a variety of means, including training and through digital inclusion tools.

The Constitution Commission was mandated to draft a constitution that was the result of full, inclusive, and fair participation of all Fijians, regardless of gender. The Commission sought to gain legitimacy through public consultations, and promoted the participation of all Fijians, including historically excluded or marginalized groups like women, and ethnic and sexual minorities. Public consultations were held throughout the country to raise awareness of the constitution-drafting process. The Commission employed a range of advertising methods to bring people to meetings, using mass media and SMS messages. A website was also set up to support the process.

Considerable efforts were made to include women’s voices. From the Government’s announcement of the drafting of a new constitution, women’s organizations took the initiative to educate and train women in Fiji’s political and constitutional procedures and advocated for their involvement including through digital tools of inclusion such as a website, email, and even Facebook.

Around 7,100 written submissions were received by post, email, and via Facebook. Submissions were processed and made available online. Women contributed to almost one-third of all submissions to the Commission, and took part in the public seminars and discussions in large numbers. The final text of the Commission’s draft constitution included a number of provisions that reflected the themes and positions advocated by women.

Source: Inclusive Peace and Transition Initiative

NICARAGUA- SOCIAL MEDIA, PUBLIC PROTEST AND A TRUNCATED DIALOGUE PROCESS, 2018

In mid-April 2018, student-led protests sparked by a government decision to cut back key social benefits developed into nationwide mobilizations against the government. Within days of the initial protests, the government requested the Nicaraguan Catholic Bishops’ Conference (CEN) to convene a National Dialogue and serve as both mediator and witness for the process.

The Bishops’ Conference identified the need for a transparent and inclusive process and communicated about the National Dialogue through formal press releases, including via its own social media platforms. However, individual bishops, including the lead mediators, used their personal social media accounts to communicate with the public, increasingly denouncing government repression of the protests. While this generated certain public support, it also contributed to diminished trust of the Government in the neutrality of the mediator.

In line with the commitment to transparency, the opening session of the Dialogue was televised and live-streamed over social media. The president headed the government delegation and was confronted by student leaders who held him directly responsible for the deaths of 48 people (the death toll at the time), reading off each one of their names. The president promptly downgraded the government delegation, assigning the Foreign Minister to lead it going forward. The subsequent session was not live-streamed although live streaming resumed for the final two sessions. It did, however, appear that this mechanism of transparency was used by all parties as a platform for affirming or marketing their own positions to the public, rather than for stimulating fruitful dialogue.

Source: UN Stand-By Team of Mediation Experts

IRAQ – UNAMI SHORT FILM ON LOCAL MEDIATION PROCESS

With UN support, the mayor of Tuz Khurmatu in Salah al-Din governorate is working to promote increased social cohesion between his town’s three principal communities: Arab, Kurd and Turkmen. All parties to the mediation process agreed to publicize these efforts and the progress of discussions has been reported on social media, including a short film made by the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq and posted on YouTube (https://youtu.be/nY6WjTSPx5U). This public outreach: reassures local communities that the search for a long-term peaceful solution is under way (and in a transparent manner); has enabled all components to set out their concerns publicly, and not just to their own communities; confirms formal UN engagement with and support for the mayor’s initiative; and, importantly, mitigates the risk of leaks or disinformation by other parties (including possible spoilers).

Source: UNAMI staff

AFGHANISTAN- RECONCILIATION & DIGITAL MEDIA, 2018

A newly appointed envoy for Afghan reconciliation was tasked with “coordinat[ing] and lead[ing] efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table”. High expectations were placed on the envoy, with the media scrutinizing his first moves.

Despite a generally positive media buzz around the envoy’s appointment, within less than a month his work had attracted unwanted controversy online. Social media platforms, especially Twitter and Facebook, were awash with news, comments and speculations about his work. The main parties and interlocutors were also active, shaping narratives about everything he did. A significant contributing factor to the online controversy around the mediator was the fact that he personally did not use digital communication tools.

During a second mission to the region and in order to counter reports of secrecy and lack of transparency, the envoy created a 'media moment' around the establishment of a Twitter account. Within a week the account had amassed more than 10k followers. It was a first step towards recognizing the need to have an authoritative voice in the digital realm.

Source: UNAMA staff

SRI LANKA- HATE SPEECH ON FACEBOOK, 2014

A central challenge around addressing hate speech is that it is technically impossible – given the volume, variety and velocity of content production on the Internet today – to robustly assess and curtail, in as close to real time as possible, inflammatory, dangerous or hateful content in English, leave alone other languages like Sinhala or Tamil. Once content is produced for the web and originally for a single platform, given user interactions and responses, it often replicates and mutates into other content over dozens of other websites and platforms, making it impossible to completely erase a record of its existence even if the original was taken down, deleted or redacted. This makes it extremely hard to address the harm arising out of hate speech.

Another challenge is in defining hate speech. Excessively broad legislation risks the law being used to curtail and stifle dissent. Loosely defined laws, on the other hand, allow perpetrators of hate speech to get off scot—free by referencing freedom of expression protections. Policymakers who have to respond to angry communities and individuals who are the targets of hate speech, if they are important constituencies, often respond with promises to address a problem they in fact cannot. Internet Service Providers and large corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter have developed guidelines around the content they will allow on their platforms, but these seem to only work best around output in English. For example, this brief study is testimony to the sheer volume of hate freely disseminated in Sinhalese on Facebook, even though the company has clear guidelines around such content which includes the banning and blocking of users.

During a second mission to the region and in order to counter reports of secrecy and lack of transparency, the envoy created a 'media moment' around the establishment of a Twitter account. Within a week the account had amassed more than 10k followers. It was a first step towards recognizing the need to have an authoritative voice in the digital realm.

Source: Centre for Policy Alternatives

PHILIPPINES: PEACE TALKS, DECORUM AND MISINFORMATION IN SOCIAL MEDIA

The peace process between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was not spared the difficulties and complications of working in a connected environment. During the negotiations, confidentiality issues had to be addressed when the technical staff of one of the negotiating parties was found to be sending out negative messages while the talks were ongoing. Consequently, a social media decorum was enforced. However, the rule did not prevent some members from criticizing the negotiations online in their respective social networks, even as the official websites of both parties generally respected the agreed code of conduct. Moreover, a lot of misinformation on the 2014 agreement was disseminated through online platforms.

Source: UN Mediation Stand-By Team