Opinion: Caleb Gichuhi is a senior specialist at PeaceTech Lab. As South Africa geared up for the recent election (May 8), he and his team were monitoring and analyzing trends throughout the country to understand and offer insights on the potential relationship between hateful language on social media and instances of violence on the ground. This is part one of a deep dive into the findings.
Read MoreSocial media is an increasingly vital tool for crisis response as non-profit organizations use it to save lives and help those in need. But its power to spread information means social media can escalate crises too.
Read MoreOpinion: Areej Elahi is a communications intern at PeaceTech Lab, and shares here how she felt as tensions escalated between India and Pakistan recently.
With over half of my family living in Pakistan and tons and tons of friends from India and Kashmir, I’ve spent the last few days biting my nails, incessantly checking for updates on the alarming escalation of hostilities between Pakistan and India as they continued tit-for-tat military airstrikes.
Read MoreThe promise of the internet -- the very soul of the tech industry -- is under siege.
Those of us who worked to create the internet during the Cold War were driven by the deep belief that open communication and collaboration could change our world for the better. But that belief was not a guarantee. Today, the same technological advancements that have dramatically increased the ease of communicating and sharing information are being used for harm and hatred.
Read MoreCan technology help build peace? Experts gathered in Washington DC earlier this year for a summit by PeaceTech Lab to investigate how tech is being used, and can be developed, to advance peace.
Read MoreIn a world full of divisiveness and conflict, one organization is working to use technology to accelerate and scale peacebuilding while empowering women founders.
Read MoreChristians who convert to Islam in East African countries often become targets for recruitment by extremist groups such as the Islamic State and al-Shabab, the al-Qaida affiliate in East Africa. Such is one finding in a June report from PeaceTech Lab, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that works to reduce violent conflict using technology.
Read MoreFake News is not just a problem for citizens in the US. Disinformation on social media has been blamed for fueling violence in conflict zones all over the world. PeaceTech Lab has been tracking hate speech in South Sudan, and has come out with a lexicon of terms that are likely to incite violence.
Read MoreMEST Africa is excited to announce MEST Portfolio Company Dropque has been accepted into the PeaceTech Accelerator program in Washington D.C. The PeaceTech Accelerator is an eight-week program providing intensive mentorship and training, with particular emphasis on cloud technology, to startups developing and using innovative technologies to help to bring about the end of violent conflict and promote sustainable peace.
Read MoreThe last few months, we here at NDItech have had the great opportunity to talk civic innovation, transparency and accountability with dozens of civic groups, journalists and government officials through a few TechCamps and PeaceTech Exchanges. These programs, put on by the State Department and PeaceTech Lab, respectively, link technical experts with innovators across the globe to brainstorm, “pitch” and ultimately bring to life smart, contextualized tech solutions to pressing community problems. It’s been a pleasure for us (your bloggers) to be a part of these sessions, which we wanted to share a bit about with you all (our loyal readers).
Read MoreIn a metallic gold tent in the atrium of the United States Institute of Peace, my colleague and I sang “Happy Birthday” to an eighty-year-old woman living in Mexico City. Rendered life-size on screen, she sat in a tent that looked just the same as the one we sat in, but with our faces looking back at hers, 2,409 miles away.
Read MoreStudy after study reinforces the idea that peace is created through deliberate dialogue between diverse groups. The Shared_Studios Portal seeks to empower individuals and communities through technology to advance their unique goals, not as consumers but as citizens. Portals create space for dialogue and are a demonstration of how technology, if constructed well, can thrive as a vehicle for peace. We envision a world where Portals regularly deliver the benefits of globalization to communities that are often left out and believe that peace will take root when diverse groups speak face-to-face. For many, the Portal is where this begins.
Read MoreAs technological innovation develops at a blistering pace, it has fundamentally altered how conflicts develop and play out, and how peacebuilders prevent and mitigate violence. Throughout history, technology has driven warfare and international security. To take one example, the development of nuclear weapons led to the doctrine of mutually assured destruction as the prevailing norm of the Cold War era. For centuries, however, most of this technology was only available to states. Today, individuals are empowered by technology to have a voice in international affairs and instantly connect with people on issues of convergence, according to USIP and technology experts speaking at PeaceTech Lab’s annual summit on May 8.
Read MoreWith its headquarters located within direct line of sight of the Lincoln Memorial and across the street from the Department of State, The United States Institute for Peace (USIP) is an independent institution devoted to the nonviolent prevention and mitigation of deadly conflicts abroad. Nestled within this organization is a small but mighty team of future-facing individuals which comprise the PeaceTech Lab. Led by Sheldon Himelfarb, the Lab "works to reduce violent conflict using technology, media, and data to accelerate and scale peace building efforts." On May 8 and 9th, this team convened technologists, creatives, celebrities, and industry leaders at the PeaceTech Summit 2018 to discuss how technology can be leveraged for the planet's greater good.
Read MoreAs Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg works to convince 2 billion users — and United States lawmakers — that the company can address issues related to privacy, disinformation, and hate speech, they also acknowledge they have struggled to understand how people in “high-risk areas” might use the far-reaching online platform “to create real risks of harm and violence,” said Joel Kaplan, Facebook’s vice president for U.S. public policy, at the PeaceTech Summit in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.
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