Description:
The frontlines of conflict are increasingly digital. Social media is being used to spread disinformation, incite violence, and undermine peace across the globe. The field of conflict mediation has struggled to keep up with the pace of technological change.
To fill this gap, HD’s social media and conflict mediation programme engages with:
- Conflict parties to encourage restraint in the digital space through agreements that mitigate online harm. For example, over the past three years we have facilitated six social media codes of conduct that define limits to signatories’ use of social media.
- Social media platforms, with the aim of mitigating online dynamics that can undermine peace processes and risk fuelling armed conflict. We are engaged in dialogue with several of the major social media platforms, using tools such as table top exercises to identify and address key risks.
- Mediators to help them understand the impact of social media on the conflicts they work on and address social media harms via diplomacy and negotiations. We have supported the integration of discussions on social media into mediation processes around the world, ensuring that peace processes address not just physical conflict drivers, but digital ones too.
At a time when so many are grappling with the challenges posed by social media in conflict, HD’s social media and conflict mediation programme is applying the tools of traditional diplomacy to the realities of modern conflict. After three successful years of implementation, we are seeking to scale up the programme over the coming years.
The project is global in scope and is implemented in close collaboration with HD country teams in the Middle East, Eurasia, Africa, and South-East Asia. This work is housed in HD’s Digital Conflict directorate. There will be opportunities for close collaboration with colleagues working in other parts of the directorate, namely on Cyber Mediation and Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies.
Key responsibilities are:
- Lead HD’s social media and conflict mediation programme and oversee its overall performance across all three tracks of work (engagement with conflict parties, social media platforms and mediators);
- Manage staff and consultants working on social media and conflict within HD, including recruitment, mentoring and daily management;
- Lead the development of the social media and conflict mediation programme’s strategy;
- Forge partnerships within HD and externally on the topic of social media and conflict mediation, identifying ways to support colleagues to reduce the risks of social media in conflict through mediation;
- Advise HD project teams on the design and execution of work on social media and conflict mediation;
- Serve as focal point for HD’s external stakeholders on the topic of social media and conflict mediation, attending meetings, panels or events where relevant;
- Contribute to fundraising efforts by meeting and briefing HD donors.