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Policy Brief No. 78
Toda Peace Institute
2. Standardise, systematise and consolidate evidence collection
When presented with evidence of abuse in Myanmar from 2013 through early 2018, Facebook often dismissed concerns as anecdotal and defaulted to one-off fixes. The more civil
society was able to consolidate evidence and show patterns, however, the more they
became able to push for systemic solutions.
Wherever possible, civil society should standardise, systematise and consolidate
their evidence collection. As a general rule, if a problem seems to be widespread or
recurring, civil society should consider complementing qualitative approaches with
quantitative ones. There is a growing body of work on methodologies and ways to
structure data collection, which can be built on to help shape such research.
Civil society should also work together across countries to identify shared patterns
as well as differences in treatment across markets and engage in joint advocacy.