Misuse of social media

Through the weaponization of social media, the internet is changing war and politics as much as war and politics are changing and shaping the internet. And, as a result of this blurred and unclear phenomena that is the merge of tech, war and politics we have things like “Twitter wars” that generate actual real-world impacts, terrorists live-streaming their massacres and viral misinformation that alters the result of battles and entire nations. All of these inside our pockets and accessible through our smartphone devices.

Information sharing and the development of complex networks, however, is something that has been growing throughout the years. The telephone allowed us to connect personally from a distance at a speed not previously possible. Radio and then TV allowed one to broadcast out to many. What social media has done is combine the two, allowing simultaneous personal connection as never before, but also the ability to reach out to the entire world. And this connection has been both liberating and disruptive. On one hand, it has freed c­­ommunication, but on the other hand it has also been used to influence people in a toxic and disruptive way.

Therefore, social media plays a huge role in shaping real-world conflicts, since the new online battlefields are at everyone’s reach. ISIS, for example, uses social media to target enemies and recruit new followers, China uses a smartphone app to police and control 1.4 billion citizens and the Russian government used social media to exploit and manipulate American politics. Everyone, nowadays, can be part of these worldwide conflicts and, most of the ­­times, without even noticing it.

But how does social media have such a huge impact on these worldwide conflicts? Well there quite a few reasons. The accessibility of social media makes the connections, coordination and communication between activists much easier and less costly. Potential allies and activists can be found, targeted and recruited in a more efficient way. Regimes can manipulate social media with fake users to give the appearance of broad support. And, given the fact that leaders and governments are heavily active on social media to campaign and gather support for their issues, social media can be also used to influence and/or bypass traditional media.

However, we must be careful not to exclusively consider social media as a tool for governments to spread misinformation, neither should we consider social as a “liberation technology”. Social media can be both, therefore it becomes more important to understand the role ­­of it in worldwide conflicts. We should also use the understanding of social media technology to systematically think about conflict prevention. Social Media’s fast ways to communicate, strategic interactions and data on support and popularity, could be used as a framework for strategic violence and hatred prevention.

At the end, social media can also be used to help spread peace and encourage the dialogue among people from different nationalities and ethnicities. It can be the bridge that unites different ethnic groups that, otherwise, wouldn’t be able to communicate with each other.

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