Policy recommendations

Measures that can be taken by the government against content inciting hate and violence (Centre for Policy Alternatives 2018c), as well as by leading social media companies (Centre for Policy Alternatives 2018a, 2018b) respectively, are already in the public domain. Proposed in the following are some recommendations around what civil society can do, in light of the developments framed earlier. Civil society hasn’t been able to get a foothold in the public consciousness of those on social media, around how the drivers of violence that endure post-war and their resolution are central to Sri Lanka’s democratic potential. Tellingly, the government since 2015 has been unable and unwilling to do this too.

1 Challenge simplistic conflict analyses that blame social media. There is no easy single solution to protracted conflict and systemic discrimination. Successive governments in Sri Lanka have flagged Facebook and social media as the sole or primary progenitors of violence, ignoring the fact that government itself has done little to uphold the Rule of Law or address the root causes. Technology is an enabler for whatever an actor intends to do and the complexity of violence, its generation and transformation, should not be viewed through a single lens.
2 Recognise that basic principles of effective communication are essential, even on social media. Even if the technologies change, basic communications strategies will have enduring value and resonance. However, some traditional content strategies, framing, expression, idiom, design and aesthetics cannot compete with new forms of expression over social media, which can communicate the same vision and ideas. Civil society needs to embrace this transformation in content in order to bring about the change it wants to see.
3 Strengthen media literacy and communications planning. A little knowledge can be very dangerous. Increased risk, exposure, unwanted scrutiny, heightened criticism, denial of service attacks on critical online infrastructure, becoming the target of bots and trolls, doxxing and breaches of privacy, aside from increased challenges and barriers around messaging, content generation and promotion, can all result from haphazard and ill-advised forays into social media.
4 Build civil society capacity' in social media. Human, technical and financial investment in embracing social media by civil society' is still regarded as optional or peripheral to projects dealing with governance, democracy, electoral systems, accountability', reconciliation, peacebuilding and media. Until and unless study, strategic adoption, timely adaptation and development through iteration is mainstreamed into civil society programmes and projects, bad-faith actors with a vested interest in leveraging social media to divide, decry and destroy, will continue to have the upper hand (Hattotuwa 2006) (Hattotuwa 2017).
5 Develop local approaches to misinformation and hate speech. Mal/mis/ disinformation in Sri Lanka spreads fast on social media, a trend studied by the author over many years. The scope, speed and scale have increased and widened with the greater adoption of social media by millennials. This is compounded by an enduring lack of media and information literacy. It is important to study and understand what drives the worst of the hate and also know when not to engage. Countering rumours, half-truths and falsehoods on social media must be handled with care, and in line with robust research done globally as well as locally around how best to operationalise counter- speech, fact-checking and the debunking of rumour.
6 Contextually determine the best social media platform, message form and language. Social media is a fluid, dynamic environment, where platform, app, device, language, age and location all play a role in how a particular issue, person, event, process, idea or institution is discussed. Knowing this, and doing the research, before producing and promoting one’s own content is vital. It is also important to focus not just on English, if it is more important to debate, promote and clarify the issue in Tamil or Sinhala, which are spoken more and have very different foci and frames of reference.
7 Develop visual types of social media content. The most viral content on Facebook and Twitter is anchored to photos, memes and short form video. Facebook Live Video generates hundreds of thousands of views, and around an event like Jana Balaya, surges into the millions. Live coverage over Face- book is now a primary vector of news and information for a young demographic, beyond terrestrial television. Content that is emotive, anchored to slang and speech forms used in Sinhala and Tamil, geared for mobile screen dimensions, and subtitled to enable muted viewing are some of the strategies employed by the most engaged accounts on social media, particularly in Sinhala. Civil society needs to study and emulate.
8 Be wary of “boosted” posts. Boosting increases the potential reach and engagement of content by payment. In the period of study for the examples in this chapter, none of the most viral, engaging accounts ran any boosts for their content. Facebook and Twitter now provides tools to scrutinise and verify this. In fact, boosted content may backfire. If perceived as boosted, content risks feeding into toxic narratives that seek to frame civil society' advocacy and activism as Western, foreign, harmful and with a hidden agenda.
9 Design social media to harness our “better angels”. The challenge for civil society and liberal democracy is to work with leading social media companies to connect with citizenry in a manner that harnesses our better angels, in order to promote—in Sri Lanka—a cohesive vision of a peace with justice, a future that acknowledges the past, a reconciliation pegged to accountability and a society that, in the main, values democracy, decency and human dignity.