THE ACCESSIBILITY OF SOCIAL MEDIA

By Daisye Rainer

This day and age, social media rules most of the things we do. It’s often how we keep in touch with friends, how we find strangers, how we spread messages, and how we get information from anywhere in the world. We often think of social media as a tool that makes the world a little smaller and one that connects us to people and helps us form communities. Put simply, social media is powerful. Because at its foundation, social media is easily accessible. However, sometimes this accessibility can be manipulated. Anything, no matter its verifiability, can be amplified.

The most poignant example of this is that of Facebook in Myanmar. Facebook is widely used in Myanmar, with almost 18 million users. According to the New York Times, it is “so broadly used that many…confuse the Silicon Valley social media platform with the Internet” (Mozur). Needless to say, Facebook is a major source of information for many people in Myanmar. But when social media becomes the Internet, any message or post is a little bit more credible or believable.

Therefore, when military officials in Myanmar began to use Facebook to spread messages of hate, hostility, and lies about the Rohingya people in August of 2018, much of the public continued to read into and spread the messages. In short, the anti-Rohingya propaganda proliferated across Facebook and played a large role in encouraging hostility and violence towards the Muslim minority.

This manipulation of the media was only a part of a much larger tension between the Buddhist majority in Myanmar and the Rohingya minority, which led to the exodus and displacement of over 700,000 people last August (McKirdy). Discrimination of the Rohingya people has existed for years, ranging from policies that deprive Muslim people of complete citizenship to arbitrary arrests, killings, rapes, and abuses of Muslim people.

But Facebook gave that discrimination and hate a voice. It manifested itself in a more dangerous way because many were taking these false posts as plausible— as news. Facebook, then, was a tool that aided a genocide, as the UN describes it, and violence against the Rohingya people. A platform this broadly accessible obviously has serious implications on the messages we are receiving and the information that governs our decision making.

The way that social media gives a voice to anyone demonstrates how it can be manipulated for political gain, personal agendas, or in this case, “ethnic cleansing” (Mozur). Myanmar is an extreme example of the manipulation of social media, but it illustrates social media’s innate power over users and the public at large. In truth, it appears that the media has a much tighter grasp on the workings of politics, culture, and society than we’d like to admit.

THE IRISH BORDER QUESTION

By Landon Holben

After the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War came to a close in 1923, the United Kingdom and the newly ordained Irish Republic were left to decide how to go about creating and maintaining the 499 km border that divided the two nations. In 1926, a boundary agreement was lodged with the League of Nations and thus became international law. In the following decades, customs and security checkpoints were few and far between along the border. The only exception to this came during the Troubles (1968-1998), when British military forces placed checkpoints at every entry point along the border to reduce cross-border paramilitary activities. However, the largest threat to maintaining an open border has actually recently arisen within the last three years.

After the highly contested June 23, 2016 referendum in which the UK voted to “leave” the European Union, all parties involved reassured the citizens of Ireland and the UK that they would maintain an open border. This assurance came despite the fact that the boundary between Ireland and Northern Ireland would technically be an external EU border and thus require some form of security. The concept of the Irish “backstop” has come into play, which essentially would protect cross-border trade from being impacted if the UK and the EU do not agree upon an all-encompassing withdrawal deal. The kicker, however, is that this backstop agreement would allow only Northern Ireland to remain in the EU customs union and other parts of the single market. Therefore, Northern Ireland could continue unrestricted trading with Ireland, but it would be essentially separated economically from the rest of the UK.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has been caught in a difficult impasse, in which the European Union and Ireland are pressuring her to accept the Irish backstop agreement while many members of May’s parliamentary coalition are pressuring her to form a deal that protects either the entire UK or none of it at all. May’s recent comments that she would not move forward with Brexit unless a comprehensive and open border policy was achieved angered many citizens and officials who are in favor of Brexit. Just recently, the German Finance Minister, Olaf Scholz, announced that the European Union stands behind Ireland, affirming that the EU will not budge from promoting the Northern Ireland backstop agreement.

To make matters even worse for May, there have been reports that sentiment for Irish unification if Brexit occurs has been rising steadily among the Northern Irish public. Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has received plenty of calls to stand up to the United Kingdom and to be open to unification talks regarding Northern Ireland. It seems that Brexit could very well lead to the reunification of Ireland after nearly a century of separation.

An open border between Ireland and Northern Ireland seems to still be in the best interests of both nations. However, this can only be the case if done correctly, and the current administrators of Brexit do not seem to be capable of compromising on the issue. This has been one of the main reasons that the European Union has refused to review the British government's proposals for a total UK backstop agreement; there is simply a lack of communication and cohesiveness regarding the implementation of Brexit.

Regardless of the outcome, the backstop negotiations are beginning to have real-world effects as Northern Irish freight companies are scrambling to apply for, and often being denied due to the unfinished negotiations, permits that would allow them to continue normal operations if Brexit is completed. With Prime Minister May’s March 29, 2019 exit deadline steadily approaching and continued incoherence of political messages from London, Ireland and the rest of the European Union have decided to hold their ground and let the “Brexiteers” drag themselves to the negotiation table.

THE NEW FACE OF ETHIOPIAN LEADERSHIP

By Lorena Tabrane

On October 25, 2018, a revolutionary event took place in Ethiopia. Sahle-Work Zewde, a former diplomat, was chosen to serve as the country’s first female president. She is expected to serve two six-year terms in her new position.

Following this, a new wave of women was appointed to serve in the country’s parliament, causing them to hold fifty percent of the government’s top ministerial positions. This event has raised a lot of excitement among the feminist community. It is seen as a significant advancement for women’s rights in the region; bringing the hope of a shift towards increasing equality for females in the country.

Ethiopia’s democratic government is a federal parliamentary republic. This system of government allows for a cabinet, a parliament, a president, and a prime minister. While there are clear checks and balances, the prime minister is the one who holds true power to enact change in the country; leaving the position of president as a symbolic one aimed to represent the voices of many around the nation without holding any legislative power. Although the election of Sahle-Work Zewde is greatly promising for the advancement of Ethiopian female rights, this division of powers within the state opens up the question of whether the new president will bring about actual change or simply act as an ineffectual symbol. A significant part of the answer to this question lies on the country’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, as his cooperation will ultimately determine whether real change will occur.

Since his election in April, Prime Minister Ahmed has enacted a series of beneficial policy changes that defy the country’s long history of human rights abuses. He freed thousands of political detainees and solved a long-lived dispute with the neighboring country of Eritrea. Although these actions seem promising, his intentions towards gender equality in Ethiopia remain unclear.

This election can ultimately have three kinds of impacts on the country. A symbolic presidency would result in a lack of governmental action towards the advancement of women’s rights. But due to its representative nature, it would cause more women to be interested in government and they may take steps towards political participation. A substantive presidency would result in advocacy and action for female rights, instead of merely symbolic representation. For this to occur, President Zewde would have to create a tangible change in Ethiopian society through legislative implementation. This form of impact would be extremely beneficial for Ethiopia’s female population, as practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriages remain in place in some regions of the country despite the government making them illegal. Lastly, Zewde could have a descriptive presidency in which her influence is not limited to women. Instead, it could extend to the educated upper class. Such advocacy would allow her to appeal to a larger section of the population and in turn lead to a greater legislative impact.

While there is a possibility for Zewde’s presidency to be a strictly symbolic one, the future of the country looks promising in terms of female advocacy. With a newly elected government, the future of the country appears to be in the hands of leaders that advocate for a more inclusive and peaceful future.