8 Policy Brief No. 93 Toda Peace Institute misogynist, racist, and anti-immigrant hate speech. These volunteers interrupt hate speech and reinforce each other in supporting victims of cyberbullying and digital hate.26 In eastern Europe, civil society in Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine has developed powerful social movements to counter Russian troll farms which launch cyber warfare. Russian cyber warfare has evolved from a small program to “troll farms” with thousands of staff planting false and divisive stories on social media in other countries. Russia’s goal is to undermine democratic institutions and increase polarization. Lithuania has a volunteer citizen army of “Elves” working together to protect themselves against Russian “industrial-scale” disinformation.”27 In Kenya, Bangladesh, and other countries around the world, peacebuilding groups are realising they need to become involved in supporting digital media literacy to improve public awareness of digital communication skills and vaccinate the public against the spread of disinformation and hate.28 Types and Functions of Information and Communication Technology Half of the world’s population has access to mobile phone technology. And 59 percent are active internet users as of April 2020.29 Some of the most creative digital peacebuilding efforts have emerged from the Southern Hemisphere in countries finding innovative ways to harness basic technology to assist in development, democratisation, humanitarian and peace efforts. Digital peacebuilding does not require sophisticated or expensive forms of technology. But some peacebuilding groups are already employing advanced technologies such as geospatial information systems, drones, and artificial intelligence. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) include any type of tool that uses numeric code, including electronic tools, systems, devices, and resources that generate, analyse, store or process data, such as mobile phones, the internet, social media, online games, and computers. Digital technologies include the following categories and examples. Jessica Bateman. “'#IAmHere': The people trying to make Facebook a nicer place.” BBC. 10 June 2019. Found at https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-48462190 Accessed on 4 July 2020. 27 Kim Sengupta. “Meet the Elves, Lithuania’s digital citizen army confronting Russian trolls. Independent. 17 July 2019. Found at https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/lithuania-elves-russia-election-tampering-online-cyber-crime-hackers-kremlin-a9008931.html Accessed on 4 July 2020. 28 See for example “Pilot Study: Social Media Literacy of Madrasa Students in Bangladesh.” MOVE Foundation. Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2019. 29 J. Clemon. “Worldwide digital population as of April 2020” Statista. Found at https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/ Accessed on 29 June 2020. 26