Funded by: US Embassy in Jordan, Public Affairs Section (in partnership with US Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs).
Term: September 2021 – October 2022.
Objective:
Search for Common Ground (Search) implemented a 12-month initiative to empower young Jordanian women and men to play an active role in developing innovative solutions to the online challenges of disinformation and misinformation. The project’s goal was met through (1) strengthening youth capacities to design and test new technology-based solutions to counter dis-/misinformation, and (2) unlocking youth leadership and entrepreneurship in countering dis-/misinformation through private sector engagement.
As the largest dedicated peacebuilding organization in the world, through this project, Search has aimed to promote online safety and security so that internet users in conflict-affected communities increasingly come to rely on digital platforms as a space for constructive, socio-political participation, rather than a domain in which they are exposed to renewed threats of hateful discourse.
Approach:
Youth participated in a 5-day Youth Tech Boot Camp where they received a series of training and were equipped with the tools to analyze, monitor, and understand social media influence, and develop digital safety skills and practices, amongst other skills. The youth, split into seven small groups, designed their start-up ideas with oversight from Search and Tech Tribes and consultations with experts in their communities. Over the course of six months, youth groups were mentored by strategic local partners, and U.S.-based enterprises and actors to strengthen their start-up ideas. Four teams were selected for seed funding to implement their solutions with the oversight of mentors.
A final engagement survey was carried out to assess the degree to which the project design met the needs of youth participants and improved their understanding of misinformation and disinformation online. The survey additionally shows how project activities, particularly networking activities, assisted youth design and test their technology-based solutions. Another highlight was the mutual feeling among them that they could make a real change in their communities. You can access the survey results here.
This was achieved with the support of:
- Training on the Common Ground Approach (CGA): a conflict transformation signature methodology that cultivates dialogue and collaboration among diverse groups of stakeholders in divided communities to shift people’s relationship with conflict by creating self-perpetuating change through institutions and social norms.
- Applying Media for Peace Approach: transforms hateful narratives by showing a more constructive way of looking at challenging issues and re-humanizing the other side. It shall enable the targeted Jordanian youth to limit the influence of mis/disinformation and hate speech on Jordanian users’ daily online behavior, contribute to creating a more conducive space for peace and reduce the chances of offline spillovers of violence.
- Applying Digital Peacebuilding Approach: revolves around the following three axes
- Data Management – Gather, analyze, or visualize data from the social media analysis differently to help youth build social cohesion.
- Strategic Communications: leverage technology to enable voice, narrative change, or information sharing to help citizens achieve their strategic aim of building peace.
- Dialogue and Networking: build on the reach and potential of technology to create new spaces, or where existing spaces exist, to enable people to talk, connect and organize.
