A critical and evolving aspect of contemporary conflict mediation is the impact of social media on conflict dynamics and mediation processes. Mediators are beginning to address this impact through standalone social media agreements, pre-process codes of conduct, or the inclusion of specific social media clauses in broader ceasefire or peace agreements. While traditional media clauses in peace agreements have been present for at least 30 years, social media provisions come with unique opportunities and challenges given their intersection with the public, propaganda, and (social media) platforms. This summarized brief equips mediators, negotiating parties, and implementation bodies with a framework for considering how social media provisions could be operationalized and monitored. Setting up a social media monitoring or implementation support framework can be time and potentially resourceintensive from both a technical and financial standpoint. The full brief considers key questions to be answered (why, what, how, and who).
Who the brief is for:
- Mediators or mediation support teams in contexts where social media is an active conflict driver that may need to be discussed in a peace process.
- Peace agreement implementation mechanisms or monitoring bodies that are tasked with implementing communications or media-related provisions.
- Social media platform professionals that are considering the policy implications and partnership opportunities during moments of conflict and negotiated political settlements.
Read a summary of the brief here.