Developing a Civil Society Response to Online Manipulation

This is the second part of a two-part toolkit. This document presents a vision for a pan-civil societal response to online manipulation. Civil society is the only place where independent, cross-platform, comprehensive research on online manipulation can realistically take place in ways rooted by human experience and societal values. This document attempts to lay out what an ideal version of that work might look like.

Why it matters

This document presents a vision for a pan-civil societal response to online manipulation. Overall, it tries to unite the sophistication and specialisation that a scaled response can confer, with everything that makes civil society a crucial part of the solution: its diversity, capacity to connect with marginalised voices and communities, transparency and passionate support for the values, causes and issues that its members, supports and workers believe in and that online manipulation itself now threatens to undermine. Civil society is the only place where independent, cross-platform, comprehensive research on online manipulation can realistically take place in ways rooted by human experience and societal values. This document attempts to lay out what an ideal version of that work might look like.

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Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), August 2020

What we do

We partner with city officials to establish local risk assessments and design action plans and programmatic responses. From de-radicalisation programming to youth engagement strategies, we ensure that local responses address local needs.

Working from the ground up, we establish local coordination bodies that unite city halls, civil society educators, public health bodies, the private sector and faith leaders to identify and address community tensions. We base our success on harnessing existing and credible institutions, from social services to traditional civic infrastructure.

We galvanise mayors, city officials, local services, communities and youth, training them to play active roles in diagnosing and responding to local risk factors, creating an international repository of best practice approaches.

We help members access the latest research and best practice from across the network through our SCN Online Hub, which features stories, interviews, guides and training modules for teachers, city officials and civil society. Our SCN Hate and Extremism Mapper provides members with data, building digital observatories that correlate online risks with offline behaviour.

We act as a bridge, creating stronger working relationships between local and national governments. We also provide civil society with the knowledge, skills and resources to foster meaningful partnerships with officials in city halls.