Conflict in the Digital Age: How can we preserve human rights? By: Alonna Williams Abstract Technology moves at an exponential pace. As we move forward, algorithms will become increasingly complex, and their use will become increasingly widespread. In the case of social media algorithms, the extremes of what is happening online is escalating already fragile conditions in some countries. In others it is destabilizing democracies. In warfare, the digital sphere has become a new front and the rules of warfare are changing. The protection of Human rights could be at stake if not considered. It is essential that a respected international body, like the United Nations (UN) take charge. As a multinational organization with vast reach and resources, the UN is an organization poised to help tackle this global challenge by promoting accountability via impact assessments for algorithms, deploying country-level risk mitigation strategies and updating international law to include rules on how to enact algorithmic warfare. Background Social Media Algorithms Stop the Steal. The Arab Spring. Ethnic Conflict in Myanmar. Civil War in Ethiopia. There is not any part of the world that has been spared from the negative effects of social media algorithms. Left unchecked, these algorithms have wreaked havoc on us offline. Social media sites are akin to a battleground for some conflicts and have played a role in conflict escalation for others. For the first, the conflict in Myanmar comes to mind. Myanmar is a country with an ethnically and religiously diverse population. In 2011, the country began its political transition into a democracy after 50 years of a repressive military dictatorship. The transition was hardly democratic as the military regime had a continued presence in authoritative positions across all levels of government (Rio 2020). The military regime stratified Myanmar’s society into eight ethnic races and 135 “national races”. However, Muslim minority groups, such as the Rohingya were excluded from the list of races. The Rohingya have constantly struggled to obtain citizenship rights within Myanmar, and as the “democratic transition” was ushered in, this issue became highlighted again. By 2017 tensions between the Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine came to a head. In August of that year, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a Rohingya militant group, launched a terrorist attack on various police and military psosts throughout Rhakine State. The aftermath of these attacks led to a humanitarian crisis where over 1 million Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh. The conflict in Rakhine fed into the already present tensions between the Buddhist and Muslim communities. Anti-Muslim sentiments led to the creation of a Buddhist National Movement, the Ma Ba Tha, and the escalation of violence against the Muslim minority within Myanmar. According to the BBC, one of the Ma Ba Tha’s leaders has been linked to violence against
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