SWAT: Experts have called for the positive use of social media platforms to promote peace and co-existence in society by avoiding misinformation and disinformation.

They were speaking during a workshop titled ‘Social media is a space for dialogue’, which was organised by Girls United for Human Rights, a grouping working to curb discrimination against girls.

Social media influencers, journalists, transgender persons and students participated in the session.

Hadiqa Bashir, a human rights activist who is the recipient of Asian Girls Human Rights Ambassador award, Mohammad Ali, Iftikhar Hussain, Fazal Khaliq, Amjad Ali, Anwar Anjum and Pervez Allam were among the prominent speakers and trainers.

The organisers said that the workshop aimed at training and motivating the social media influencers to use the digital platforms for positive change in the society.

“We can see that presently social media platforms are being used for negative propaganda to achieve ulterior motives by using disinformation,” said Ifthikhar Hussain, one of the organisers, adding that the trainers imparted training to the influencers to use their social media platforms for peace-building, culture heritage and empowering marginalised communities.

The experts said that social media had the power to unite the people and promote peace if the youth used it positively. “Social media influencers must start positive dialogues to promote peace, harmony and coexistence,” they said, adding that unfortunately, negative propaganda was used promoting conflict through social media platforms.

The participants said that earlier they could not understand the difference between misinformation and disinformation and blindly believed in the social media posts without verification.

Farhan Naveed, a social media influencer, said that owing to their importance in the present digital era, the social media platforms must be taught in schools so that the young generation could differentiate between good and bad or negative and positive information disseminated.

The participants said that they would use artificial intelligence and digital tools on their social media platforms to further enhance their activism for peace and coexistence.

Hadiqa Bashir said that social media platforms were effective forums to create peace and harmony in the society by initiating dialogues to resolve conflicts.

The participants performed group activities on the positive use of social media and made presentations to this effect.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2024