Introduction “No technology has been weaponized at such an unprecedented global scale as social media” — Jonathan Ong & Jason Cabañes (2018) The so-called Digital Revolution has transformed the humanitarian, development and peacebuilding landscape, creating new pathways for data-driven interventions, along with a broader ecosystem of relevant actors, roles and relationships. Social media platforms, search engines and online news organizations, for example, play an increasingly significant role in elections integrity, civic discourse and group identity formation, with offline impacts on peace and social cohesion. But while digital technologies can offer many opportunities to improve people’s lives, there is also growing concern around their possible negative implications as drivers of violence, persecution and exploitation. While the spread of malicious or inaccurate information has long been a driver of conflict through in-person communication and traditional media, this landscape assessment examines the ways in which digital platforms and behaviors — specifically on social media — uniquely contribute to conflict and may require peacebuilders to adapt their existing strategies or create new approaches. Repressive authorities, armed groups and violent extremists are making innovative use of digitally enabled tools and methods to distort facts on the ground and spread incendiary rhetoric. Their goals: to obfuscate accountability, undermine community acceptance, erode social cohesion or incite panic and/or violence. Ordinary citizens become embroiled in these processes, whether intentionally or unconsciously, and contribute to networks of online and offline actions that undermine healthy societies or foment violence. This assessment, based on a literature review and expert interviews, takes stock of these challenges and proposes ways for peacebuilders and other organizations to respond. It outlines four ways in which social media is weaponized, contributing to conflict dynamics and posing risks for humanitarian, development and peacebuilding processes: information operations, political manipulation, digital hate speech, and radicalization and recruitment. The assessment also analyzes how social media presents new drivers of conflict — and can exacerbate traditional ones — within the broader spectrum of root causes and triggers of violence, and proposes next steps for a comprehensive response to the weaponization of social media. See Appendix for a description of the assessment methodology. MERCY CORPS The Weaponization of Social Media: How social media can spark violence and what can be done about it 7