Social Media and ICT Usage in Conflicts Areas

Abstract

Social media as well as information and communication technology (ICT) play a major role in different conflicts all over the world. They have been crucial tools in the beginning of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ in Tunisia, the ongoing war in Syria, the struggle of Palestinian activists but also the Ukraine-Russia conflict. In this work, we provide the readers with an overview of current state of affairs regarding the use of ICTs in general and social media in particular in conflicts. Afterwards, we discuss how and what kind of tools and methods different actors use in their struggle. We especially focus on how actors appropriate the available tools to suit the specific conditions they find themselves in, such as risks of online surveillance, danger of prosecution of themselves or close others and varying levels of connectivity. We finally discuss the importance of an embedded perspective on the use of ICTs in conflict to understand these practices of appropriation.