Social media, stereotypes, and the acknowledgement of war crimes

Abstract

Human rights activists increasingly employ social media to promote post-conflict justice and reconciliation. This study asks what role social media play in facilitating the acknowledgement of war crimes committed by members of one’s ethnicity and what the implications of mediated visibility are. It finds that people are less willing to acknowledge ingroup responsibility for war crimes on social media because they fear being negatively stereotyped by foreign audiences and reputationally undermined. The study sheds light on the unintended negative consequences of mediated visibility of war crimes and counters presumptions of digital universalism showing that implications of visibility are context dependent.