Toda Peace Institute workshop, Build Peace Conference

A Social Media and Peacebuilding workshop presented by Toda Peace Institute, in
association with the Build Peace 2019 conference, brought together ten vibrant
peacebuilders and journalists from ten countries to shares stories of how social media is
impacting their countries and communities.

The workshop entitled “The Impact of Social Media on Conflict Dynamics” drew on
material presented in policy briefs which are available on the Toda Peace Institute
website. The workshop explored common themes across the policy briefs, including
how governments and terror groups are using social media to mobilize violent attacks
and the role of this technology in polarising politically fragile communities. Many of the
policy briefs conclude with recommendations for policy makers, governments, social
media and tech companies, and the media.

On Wednesday 13 November, the group presented a workshop to a variety of NGOs and
U.S. think tanks, followed by a presentation to 200 people on Thursday 14 November as
part of the main Build Peace conference.

On the final day, the Build Peace conference hosted a session led by Toda Peace Institute
Senior Research Fellow Dr Lisa Schirch on how to create a “Digital Neighborhood
Watch”, by bringing conflict resolution principles into the online space. The objective is
to give civil society more skills for handling disinformation and disrupting hate speech
online.

The Build Peace conference capped off a busy year for Toda’s Social Media and Peace
building programme, with Dr Schirch attending a number of conferences and convening
panels in the USA, Turkey and England, developing working relationships with NGOs
including Alliance for Peacebuilding and USIP, and meeting with US-based tech
companies.