Encourage state action beyond regulation

This section proposes recommendations for State agencies to implement or complement already existing norms or devise policies to attain a stronger impact of the current measures:

Increase the prosecution of online offences: The first recommendation is strongly related to a question about what reality is. In many cases, it is common to find a view that the digital world is separated from the offline one, as if a citizen could have both a digital and an analogue persona. During the workshop that preceded this article, it was noted that the crimes committed in social media platforms do not lose their capacity of being crimes just because they are carried out in the digital sphere. For State action, this means that there should be a stronger effort from Colombian agencies to enforce already existing rules for offline scenarios in offences related to the use of social media. For instance, the State could increase the prosecution of online hate speech, murder menaces and breaches to the regulation on campaign publicity for electoral candidates, such as paying influencers for promoting a candidate without disclosing the information about the disbursement.

Enforce data protection policies and improve digital literacy on data rights: The biggest asset in social media is personal data. There are many current State efforts and regulations to protect the data rights of the citizens, such as the 2012 Law on Data Privacy and the prosecution of complaints against candidates for breaching citizens’ data rights. Still, in many cases, the actions are not enough, and the citizens do not even know their rights, while the lawbreakers are not dissuaded nor punished. Therefore, it is also recommended that the State implements more efforts to increase public literacy on data rights and quick reactions to investigate and sanction the wrongdoers.

Educate for digital democracy: The public educational policies in Colombia need to address more effectively the challenges of social media use for democracy. Many citizens do not know how the internet works, nor how the echo chambers are produced or how filter bubbles shape their preferences. Furthermore, the digital divide is still very high in the country. Thus, when many Colombians are introduced to social media, they do not have enough data literacy to understand the role of algorithms, artificial intelligence or disinformation, so they can be easily deceived. This creates a pivotal burden on the State, to make sure that the educational system, inside and outside classes and for younger and older populations, prepares individuals to understand social media and make responsible decisions on how to use it.

Nurture socially respotisible tech companies

Social media is the product of a broad range of tech enterprises that offer services that allow people to communicate more effectively. The way these corporations have shaped online algorithms, data privacy policies and strategies to attract users and increase the employment of their products has also influenced some of the beneficial and harmful effects of social media in the cases analysed. Social media companies could help to positively influence democracy if they:

Increase transparency: Just recently, and due to severe breaches of data security, social media companies have started to create and implement rigorous data privacy policies. Yet, there is still a need to increase transparency on how companies collect, store, use and share the data collected from users. Moreover, the terms and conditions of social media platforms are usually lengthy and complex. A broad range of users do not understand or even read them. There is a need for companies to educate their users on the obligations and rights of employing their products, so they can understand what they are accepting when they sign the terms and conditions.

Understand and address the effects of social media use on democracy: Companies also have a responsibility in researching, understanding, managing, mitigating and sharing the knowledge acquired about the risks that the use of their products may imply for democracy. Therefore, they should invest more in researching how their products affect democratic decisions and educating the public on their findings so more responsible use of social media is nurtured.

Increase the international support to domestic and global concerns

Countries worldwide are experiencing many challenges to democracy from social media use, such as disinformation and polarisation. International cooperation is important to tackle these difficulties. The following proposals are recommended for this type of actor:

Foster more spaces to share best practices and lessons learned: Given that every country has distinct dynamics and particularities, there should not be a cookie-cutter strategy on how to handle social media use in democratic spaces. However, there are many innovative approaches to manage the situation that could provide insightful perspectives to other cases, such as the use of online bots in the United States to decrease online polarisation (Build Up 2018). International cooperation should foster more spaces to share lessons and best practices between different stakeholders and countries.

Increase strategic finance: As previously mentioned, financing initiatives on social media and democracy is key to advancing understanding of the diverse phenomena about this issue and devising evidence-based strategies. Thus, it is recommended to increase the strategic finance of international donors for projects that address the use of social media in Colombian democratic spaces, especially the ones that use exploratory approaches and, thus, are underfinanced.

The recommendations proposed are only preliminary suggestions to trigger a broader conversation on social media use and democracy. Likewise, the proposals aim to spark a multi-actor approach to address challenges common to a diverse range of stakeholders. Their coordinated work could help devise more effective strategies to seek the common objective of creating a more inclusive and transparent democracy in the midst of the Colombian conflict.

Acknowledgements

The chapter includes valuable insights from Fernanda Bedoya, Renata Cabrales, Beverly Goldberg, Nicolas Hernandez, Carlos Junca, Michael Monclou and Dan- iela Sanchez, provided during a workshop carried out in August of 2019, with the support of Policentrico and the Open Society Foundations. The workshop was held to discuss a preliminary version of this brief with stakeholders from the public, private and international sectors. The author also appreciates the insightful comments of Juan David Gutierrez, and the assistance of Marfa Camila Sierra during the process of data collection of the research. The usual caveats apply.

Notes

• 1 In contrast, the referendums in Colombia are elections that can be activated by either public authorities or citizens for the people to approve or reject the creation of a new norm or the abolition of an already existing norm.
• 2 See, for instance: Oficina del Alto Comisionado para la Paz, Acuerdos alcanza- dos cn la Mesa de Conversaciones de La Habana, 2016, www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Lxwl81HvT3U; Oficina del Alto Comisionado para la Paz, :Qite contiene el acuerdo solucion al problema de las drogas ilicitas?, 2016, www.youtube.com/ watch?v=JpO3Sh0bKgs; Oficina del Alto Comisionado para la Paz, iQue dice el punto sobre participation politica del Acuerdo de Paz?, 2016, www.youtube.com/ watch?v=qj6CeBDkU-4&t=ls.
• 3 Some of the infographics can be seen in this webpage of the Government: Oficina del Alto Comisionado para la Paz, “Todo lo que necesita saber sobre el Acuerdo de Paz”, 2018, www.altocomisionadoparalapaz.gov.co/herramientas/Paginas/Todo- lo-que-necesita-saber-sobre-el-proceso-de-paz.aspx.
• 4 This was the case, for example, of the campaign #AcuerdoDePaz. Cf. Urna de Cris- tal, “Informe de la campana #AcuerdoDePaz” (Presidencia de la Republica 2016), https://estrategia.gobiernoenlinea.gov.co/623/articles-51941_archivo_04.pdf.

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