Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi received Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council President Rashad al-Alimi as part of his first foreign tour since his inauguration, amid efforts to consolidate the cease-fire and reach a solution that ends the crisis in the war-torn country.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi received Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council President Rashad al-Alimi as part of his first foreign tour since his inauguration, amid efforts to consolidate the cease-fire and reach a solution that ends the crisis in the war-torn country.
Social media in peace mediation: a practical framework
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Main authors: David Lanz, Ahmed Eleiba, Enrico Formica, Camino Kavanagh
While mediation remains a fundamentally human-led endeavour, the importance of digital technology in peace processes is growing. Mediators and their teams need to be prepared to use digital tools and address digital risks. This especially applies to social media, given its widespread and rapidly increasing use. According to one estimate, by the start of 2021, there were some 4.2 billion active social media users – 53% of the global population – of whom women users accounted for 45.9%. In 2020, 490 million new users joined social media, a growth rate of 13.2%. On average, users have accounts on eight different platforms and spend two-and-a-half hours per day on social media. As a result, social media increasingly shapes political and social interactions and, indeed, people’s perceptions of reality.