This paper was written by Julie Hawke and Helena Puig Larrauri.
Current platform policies reinforce conflict models that are both dyadic – framing disputes as occurring between two opposing parties – and agentic – treating individuals as the primary drivers of conflict escalation or resolution. In ‘The Third Side’, William Uryargues that we can’t think of conflict as a simple dyad in the way conflict escalation/de-escalation models do, but rather that every conflict has a ‘third side’ which is the emergent communal will. Conflict is most often not resolved or de-escalated merely through the emotional work of the parties, but by the pressure, incentives, and pathways community provides. This paper explores what roles digital peacebuilding activists take to de-escalate conflict on social media and provide a pathway to alternative, peace-promoting norms. We argue that manifesting constructive conflict becomes possible through incorporating the roles and underlying philosophy of the ‘third side’ into individual action, platform design, and policy.