Seminar on the topic of “Social Media as the New Means to Commit International Crimes”

The seminar addressed the involvement of the social media platform Facebook in the event occurring in Myanmar in the past few years as well as the company’s role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, specifically with regards to Cambridge Analytica’s involvement in the 2017 post-election violence in Kenya.

The first part of the report was focused on the brief overview of the existing international crimes related to the use of speech: the crime of persecution and the crime of direct and public incitement to commit genocide. The second part was dedicated to analyzing the situation in Kenya in 2017, the current events in Myanmar, and how the capabilities of the social media platform Facebook were utilized to disseminate hatred among users and incite violence offline.