12 Policy Brief No. 44 Toda Peace Institute 3. Map the emerging “global underground disinformation and propaganda trade,” similar to the global arms trade. In this world, there are vendors as well as individuals selling their services. There are also state actors making alliances and training each other. For instance, Russia’s Internet Research Agency is rumoured to have trained President Duterte in the Philippines on propaganda tactics. Who are the major players in this world? In what skills are they training and what trends are they watching? 4. Research if and how culture affects the societal impact of US digital media platforms. For instance: If we discover that Facebook has a specific impact on polarisation in America, then can we be sure that will hold true in Russia, or Thailand, or in subcultures? (I have heard rumours that researchers find misinformation campaigns to be less effective in some countries, and more effective in others.) And how best can we understand different social media usage in different cultures, even when the platforms are the same (e.g., what’s the best way to get a handle on how Instagram usage differs between the Middle East and the US)? 5. Explore digital platforms created in other countries. What methodologies and options do we have for understanding and interacting with Chinese platforms, for example? 6. Inquire about the impacts of homophily. Even if homophily does not seem to cause echo chambers, what can we learn about its other impacts? (Some examples of homophily seem benign, like the asexual community gaining the ability to find each other and form support groups. Other examples may be concerning in mentalhealth-related ways, such as pro-anorexia groups or pro-self-harm groups. Still other examples are worrying in political ways, such as the QAnon phenomenon, where conspiracy theorists have created a sub-community that supports itself via Patreon, and are cross-promoting across other conspiracy theories to create a larger movement; see this tweet from researcher Renee DiResta.) 7. Research a finer understanding of polarisation’s negatives and positives. What do we know about how asymmetric polarisation works, its root causes, and how interventions might differ between asymmetrically polarised populations? 8. Understand the "ultra FOMO" (fear of missing out) phenomenon: One impact of large-scale digital media seems to be that peer pressure and self-comparison get scaled to an absurd degree. Most people using the Internet are exposed to images of the most beautiful possible people, porn that showcases niche and extreme acts, etc. This may lead to worse body image, lower satisfaction with intimate relationships, etc. For example, doctors have coined the phrase "Snapchat dysmorphia" to describe women getting plastic surgery so they match the modified images of themselves that they are posting on social media. (This may dovetail with homophily.) Effects on well-being are becoming better documented — and this probably also affects peacebuilding and government, given that people’s personal feelings and connections on digital media are leverage points for propaganda. For more about how these questions and phenomena are playing out in real time, check out the second brief in this series, “Polarization and Peacebuilding Strategy on Digital Media Platforms: Current Strategies and Their Discontents.”