Douaa Sheet, National Reconciliation in the Age of New Social Media
At first glance, there seems to be a shared mission between social medias promise of increased dissemination of information and truth commissions commitment to truth, granting victims a voice, and safeguarding peoples right to informationwhich would suggest that the rise of the former could only empower the latter. A newstudy by SIS Professor Douaa Sheet suggests otherwise.
Professor Sheet argues that social media can impede truth commissions liberal vision that celebrates speaking as synonymous with healing and hails publicizing victims testimonies as key to facilitating national reconciliation. Through a study of the Tunisian Truth and Dignity Commissions Facebook-mediated public hearings, sheanalyzes these platforms algorithmic mode of content circulation and argues that one of its less analyzed features is its war on silence. While voice has been celebrated and silence decried in human rights discourse, sheanalyzes silence as a gap in knowledge and arguesfor its role in forging empathetic publics and mediating reconciliation.
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