MONROVIA — As Liberia draws closer to host its general and presidential election in October 2023, The Liberia Elections Observation Network (LEON), has launched a social media monitoring project for youth and women under the umbrella “Women and Youth Democracy Engagement”(WYDE).
The project holds immense significance as it will address a pressing global phenomenon that affects aspects of lives, the society, Democracy and the youth.
The objective of the project is to target youths as consumers of social media news that has the potential to spread dis or misinformation about the electoral process among them.
The project will also target politicians, candidates, parties, public servants concerns over widespread online interference in electoral processes.
Social media generates large content of information which influences people’s beliefs, values, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors, and affects social, political, economic, and religious lives.
LEON is of the conviction that Social media apps have played a very significant role, in positively improving societal interactions through information sharing but also, have been the medium for negative activities such as the use of hate speech, the spread of mis/disinformation, and influencing and inciting violence, especially during electoral periods.
The project is being supported by the European Partner for Democracy (EPD).
Giving an overview of the project at program marking the launch of the Women and Youth Democracy Engagement”(WYDE), LEON social media lead, Madam Florence Nyanku Maiwo said the Liberia Elections Observation Network-LEON, has been monitoring social media as part of its core work assessing social media content’s impact on the democratic processes and how it limits or promote youth political participation.
She said to enhance the already ongoing efforts by LEON initially supported by SIDA, the European Partners for Democracy-EPD through its project Women and Youth Democracy Engagement-WYDE Youth Project has awarded the Liberia Elections Observation Network a grant in the amount of fifty-thousand Euros (50,000) for the period of eight (8) months July 1, 2023, to February 29, 2024.
“The project seeks to engage young people and assess their level of involvement in the use of social media platforms that promote or limit their political participation in democratic processes,” Florence noted.
Madam Nyanku also noted that LEON will build on the support to monitor 30 selected pages and individuals to track their activities on social media, saying,
“Meta or Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and Twitter are the main social media platforms that will be monitored during this ongoing electoral process to identify possible disinformation, misinformation, threats, and hate speeches,”
She said the LEON project will involve analyzing the type of content, time of posting, and frequency of posting, by key government officials/entities, opposition members/political parties, key media actors/entities, and individuals in general.
she noted that the general objective of the project is to generate data from social media content on misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech and assess its impact on the electoral process.
It is also intended to mitigate online harassment and violence against women by naming and shaming those involved.
The project will also promote youth political participation using social media platforms and provide accurate, unbiased analysis of statements made by public officials, Politicians, and influencers on social media and to correct public misperceptions regarding issues of National concern, LEON officials said.
“It is also intended to lessen the spread of misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech during and after an election process and to gauge citizens’ perception of sources of information gathering regarding mis/disinformation and hate speech through the conduct of a nationwide survey.
For his part, LEON’s Head of Secretariat Mr. Augustine S.M. Tamba described the project as timely.
He noted that most of the time the public is being misled by politicians, supporters of politicians by statements made on the radio and on the social media.
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