ICODR podcast: Sanjana Hattotuwa on technology, disinformation, and peace

ICT for Peacebuilding, ICTs in general 1 Minute
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The ICODR Podcast, from the International Council for Online Dispute Resolution (icodr.org), covers the rapidly growing field of online dispute resolution. Hosted by Ian Macduff, the podcast interviews ODR experts from around the world to discuss the latest developments in the field, with an eye to ethics, culture, security, and impartiality.

I joined the wonderful Ian Macduff for a wide-ranging discussion, delving into the complex interplay between digital technology, social media, and their impacts on society, particularly in the context of conflict, peacebuilding, and disinformation.

Listen to it here.

The conversation touches on the early optimism surrounding the internet, as encapsulated by Frances Cairncross’s “The Death of Distance,” which envisioned a world where digital connectivity fosters understanding and peace.

However, I reflected on the evolution of online spaces from platforms of global community, and shared interests to performative theatres of division, where the proliferation of algorithms, and platform functionalities like the “like” button on Facebook contributed to societal fragmentation, intensification of hate, and spread of harms.

We talk about Groundviews, and why I set it up. We also talk a lot about my work at the ICT4Peace Foundation, since 2006.

We end by critically examining the dark side of ICTs, highlighting the role of digital platforms in undermining democratic values and the shared basis of reality. My work in New Zealand, particularly in the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shootings, and with The Disinformation Project, helps illustrate the global scope of truth decay, and its implications for democracy, social cohesion, and individual safety.

Looking back, Ian’s the first New Zealander I knew, and he’s such a wonderful ambassador for the country. Our association goes back close to two decades.

Towards the end of the podcast, we talk about home – and I reflect how the loss of my home (Sri Lanka) to disinformation is, in large part, the motivation behind what I do now in New Zealand. You’ll have to listen to the podcast for the fuller answer – and the first time I’ve been asked, and talked about this.

My thanks also go out to Colin Rule, for involving me in this amazing podcast series.

Published by Sanjana

An Ashoka, Rotary World Peace and TED Fellow, I have since 2002 used, studied and advocated Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to strengthen peace, human rights & democratic governance. I founded in 2006 and till June 2020 edited the award-winning Groundviews, Sri Lanka's first civic media website. From 2002-2020 I was a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives. I pioneered both the use of social media for activism and online citizen journalism/civic media in Sri Lanka, including setting up South Asia's first Twitter and Facebook accounts for civic media, in 2007. Having started digital security training for human rights activists in 2010, I continue to advise civil society on digital hygiene, mass and personal surveillance, privacy and secure communications to date. I also curate a comprehensive digital archive of material linked to peace and conflict in Sri Lanka, since 2002. I specialise in, advise and train on social media communications strategy, countering-violence extremism online, web-based activism, online advocacy and grounded, context-based, platform-specific social media research. My work experience over two-decades spans five continents. Through the ICT4Peace Foundation and since 2006, I help strengthen information management during crises and work on countering violent extremism online. For over a decade, this included leading the Foundation's work on these lines with the United Nations and other multi-lateral organisations involved in peacebuilding, peacekeeping, and humanitarian affairs. Since 2008, I have worked in South Asia, South East Asia, North Africa, Europe and the Balkans to capture, disseminate and archive inconvenient truths in austere, violent contexts. I completed doctoral studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand, looking at the symbiotic relationship between offline unrest and online instigation of hate and harm in Sri Lanka and, in the aftermath of the Christchurch massacre in 2019, facilitated by leading research based on New Zealand's first ever Data for Good grant by Twitter.

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