Yafe Mobile App, Educating Communities to Combat Hate Speech

Dangerous speech and fake news are increasingly being attributed as major influencers of violent conflicts the world over, and Nigeria is no exception to this growing trend. The Yafe mobile app (Yafe means “forgiveness” in Hausa language) will educate users on how to identify dangerous speech, allow them to report it, and to create a digital community of practice to support negotiation, mediation and education efforts in protracted conflicts. By adopting this community-led approach to peace solutions, societies can learn from what works and adapt to the ever-changing dynamics of the conflicts. Using technology as a connector will allow polarized communities along conflict lines to shape a shared memory together and collectively envision a safe and secure future, which can elucidate avenues for reconciliation and forgiveness.

In Nigeria, dangerous speech is increasingly prevalent and problematic in key areas and nationwide during contentious political events and in religious places of worship. Dangerous speech is a persistent problem online, where social media and viral engagement increases real world dire consequences. In Barkin Ladi Plateau State Nigeria, where the Yafe App will be piloted in August 2019, circles of violent attacks, reprisals and counter reprisals took a horrific toll within the second half of 2018 on the communities from this area. The story of 83-year old Imam Abdullahi Abubakar, who reportedly rescued over 200 Christians by hiding them in a local mosque, on 24 June 2018, from alleged Muslim faithfuls (said to be also operating based on unconfirmed reports) is still widely referenced today as one of few bright examples of putting community first over religion. So much so, Imam Abdullahi was recently recognized as one of the recipients of the 2019 US International Religious Freedom Award https://edition.cnn.com/2019/0.... Though violent incidents have largely declined in recent months, an estimated 58 lives have so far been lost in and around this locality in 2019 alone, with ethnic and religious hateful profiling spiralling across social media platforms.

The Yafe App will support local leaders to promote group cohesiveness, through proactive and collective joint community action to address the triggers of violent conflict. The Yafe mobile app will be incorporated into an ongoing peacebuilding and conflict prevention program called TARE (meaning “together” in Hausa). It is being implemented in three Northern Nigerian states: Borno, Kaduna and Plateau. Since 2017, the program has so far reached over 13,000 beneficiaries. Mercy Corps selected these states based on the level of identity-based conflicts. In each of these states, TARE works on engaging Christian and Islamic religious leaders, to develop and implement Community Action Plans to Prevent Violent Extremism (PVE) and promote harmonious relations, in cooperation with community leaders, civil society, youth, women and local state government officials. We also support community level efforts to refute stereotypes and prejudices and foster peaceful coexistence in Northern Nigeria. The introduction of an app like Yafe will allow for these interventions to scale beyond the in-person interactions that TARE is implementing currently. It will also allow for cross-community interaction and learning, as leaders from multiple communities will be able to communicate and share their experiences in a way they would not have before. 

We believe an important step in combating toxic speech online is to use emerging technologies, try new ideas, and to build an app that allows for reporting, education and community dialogue. The app is unique in that we will be testing 1-2 different AI based, open source algorithms to capture data, interpret data, and train the app to look for hate speech data. We are using a combination of free tools from Google and coupling those with Twitter for social media, and providing community leaders a way to engage each other, discuss ideas together, and collaborate together to create peaceful outcomes. The uniqueness is in coupling a mobile app, social media, AI tools, and working with community leaders to pilot, test, and pivot our ideas for the benefit of community solidarity.

The core framework is based on Google’s mobile app Flutter.io framework. We are using Google analytics for metrics measurement, and Google’s Firebase server. There are 3 areas or 3 tabs that users can select on loading the app. There is an account/home tab, a community tab, and a Twitter feed tab integrated. The social media tab will be used for aggregating social media platforms and local news accounts into a single platform on which dangerous speech will be identified via a monitoring tool. Alerts will be sent to users when dangerous speech appears in their feeds and news sources. This will enable them to educate themselves, their constituents, and work to mitigate the effects of inflammatory speech on the ground; A community tab will help create a digital community of practice via a message board-style feature. Pilot participants will use this platform to share information about dangerous speech that they have reported, creating accountability mechanisms and positive reinforcement for reporting behaviors. For our social media component, we chose Twitter. Other social media tools may eventually be added based on our program’s pilot testing and findings. Additionally, we are testing the use of 1-2 different open source AI bots for detecting toxic speech, and keep track of this toxic language, as well as allowing users to take action by reporting the toxic speech via Twitter, and sharing their findings within a community tab or blog like environment build for information sharing.

We believe that complex problems require creative products and ideas, to help move the needle in the right direction. There is not one solution, but our hope is that through the use of AI and pilot programming, our approach will improve community engagement, information dissemination, and education. Identity conflicts in the regions Mercy Corps works in, has resulted in an estimated 7,000 deaths over the past five years, with local economies losing about $13 billion in potential revenues annually. Mercy Corps has worked with governments, community and religious leaders, women and youth to mitigate over 600 disputes – over grazing routes, seasonal access to water points, crop damage, cutting down of economic trees, water pollution by animals, religious differences and commerce. Strengthening of negotiation and mediation skills of local leaders, to inclusively address these conflict issues, has been the fulcrum of Mercy Corps approach for its peacebuilding and conflict management programming in Nigeria. We are expecting that users will learn how to better identify hate speech, increasing their ability to respond and in turn, educate their communities. Additionally, the app will create a digital community of practice of community leaders engaging with hate speech they see on social media and reporting hate speech that they see in their own communities. Finally, through this interaction and engagement with the app and the improved recognition of hate speech, we expect that users are able to reduce tensions and curb violent incidents in their community. 

We will start our pilot program with 25 pilot users, who in turn will support peacebuilding efforts in their locality with support from the app, reaching over 10,000 community members. The app platform will be integrated to support a 5-year community peace program in Northern Nigeria, which will be implemented in over 50 additional communities, reaching over 500,000 potential direct beneficiaries. Within these five years, this app will evolve to assist in dangerous speech in other countries where Mercy Corps implements its programs globally. It will evolve for the functionality that users request/need. After 6 months to a year, we will open the app up with an openly distributed version for the app stores, github, etc

Mercy Corps is well positioned to leverage our experience, high level of community recognition and trust, and robust relationships with key local actors, to deliver rigorously researched, and adaptable programs that address the root causes of conflict in the Middle-Belt and Northeast, and other areas experiencing conflict. Across our country portfolio, we will foster an enabling environment for peace by promoting good governance and inclusive economic growth, while meeting urgent humanitarian needs with conflict-sensitivity. This holistic approach will enable us to build resilience to the impact of conflict in Nigeria by increasing people’s ability to not only cope with the shocks and stresses of conflict and complex crisis, but to transform the underlying causal dynamics.

Platforms for community leaders to advocate for improved responses to violence are still insufficient across Nigeria. In recent years, calls for more proactive measures to deal with conflict has only grown in Nigeria. Local capacities to engage with state and national-level government and security actors need to be strengthened. The voices of women and youth in dispute resolution and peacebuilding processes are often neglected in Northern Nigeria, more visibly in the local areas directly impacted by the conflicts. Root causes of the conflicts around grievances arising from a lack of economic and social opportunities (particularly for youth) has become a common phenomenon. Also, coordination efforts between communities and security agencies continues to face challenges due to lack of trust and mutual suspicion.  

Mercy Corps strategic approach in Nigeria is to, harmonize dispute resolution, dialogue and mediation approaches to build community cohesiveness. Mercy Corps Nigeria’s conflict management programs harnesses these approaches, to mitigate and manage violence and promote development through appropriate and sensitive methods that serve the various contexts that we work in. This includes strengthening traditional dispute and conflict management structures, and supporting communities to implement inclusive inter- and intra- faith and joint community projects that promote, dialogue and mobilize divided groups to work together around shared interests and assets, including natural resources. Mercy Corps works to build the capacities of marginalized stakeholder groups to advocate for better responses from local government, support constructive engagement between communities and authorities, and enhance the ability of institutional and government actors to meet the needs of conflict-affected communities. To be effective in this work, we continue to build on our own internal capacities to engage with state and national-level government and security actors, as well as to engage at the community level. This enables us to work with local communities to map political actors and the policy environment, which in turn informs tailored community advocacy which ensures that appropriate and effective linkages with government are formed and accessed through policy dialogues. Where possible, we work to ensure that community governance forums are formalized into sustainable structures, and create safe spaces to empower and elevate the voices of communities. 

Mercy Corps held a Hate Speech Hackathon in November 2018, to find innovative solutions to dangerous speech in Nigeria. The Yafe Mobile App solution was conceived through the Hackathon, with funding from the GHR foundation. The winning app is in its early stages of a pilot with the help of the lead designer, supported by Mercy Corps Nigeria’s conflict management team with guidance from Mercy Corps’ global Technology for Development unit. 

Full time staff: 6

Contractor:1

Mercy Corps has deep relationships within the community, and knowledge in how to execute programming in Nigeria, where the app pilot will be tested with community leaders,including women and youth. We are growing our technology investments and hope to engage our partners, such as Google, and Twitter, to help us scale our technologies and deliver results that create value in people’s lives.

Twitter representation was present at the Hackathon and there might be future engagement with social media partners or media organizations. The GHR Foundation currently funds the program where this app is being piloted in Nigeria.

Mercy Corps is an international development organization that helps people around the world survive and thrive after conflict, crisis and natural disaster. The organization assists in alleviation of suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive, and just communities. Its services include emergency relief, agriculture and economic development, housing and infrastructure as well as nonviolent conflict management. In addition, Mercy Corps offers financial assistance through donations and planned giving programs. They have provided $3.7 billion in lifesaving assistance throughout the world. Each year they infuse millions of dollars into local economies through small business loans and grants to provide livelihoods for the world’s most vulnerable people. They are empowering more than 100,000 youth trapped by violent conflict to overcome the profound stress of war and become change makers in their communities.

In disaster, in hardship, and in more than 40 countries around the world, Mercy Corps is delivering lifesaving support for urgent needs — and applying bold solutions to help spark, scale and sustain transformational change. Mercy Corps also gets support, expertise, innovations and solutions from our corporate and foundation partners to go beyond business as usual to help people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities. Our partnerships are tailored to the unique objectives of each partner and the opportunities to leverage multiple assets of each organization, including financial resources, employee talent, product, customer engagement and more for greater global impact.

Through this funding opportunity from the MTI solvers challenge can support Mercy Corps mission to build safe, secure and just communities around the world. Mercy Corps has made a commitment to create a community of “digital citizens” within our organization. We have a robust Technology for Development (T4D) team, that works globally to advise Mercy Corps teams about how to incorporate technology-focused approaches where helpful. The Mercy Corps T4D team has a particular interest in exploring the effects that the weaponization of information via social media platforms has at the local, community level - and in exploring how to combat this phenomena through technological means. Learnings from the Yafe app will be iterated on, and piloted, in additional locations globally to ladder up learnings and observations to build Mercy Corps’ global strategy for tackling this issue.

A Twitter feed tab will be integrated into the Yafe Apps platform. Community App users will have access to these live Twitter feeds, which is also followed and carefully administered by Mercy Corps’ Conflict Management team. Other social media tools may eventually be added as data sources based on our program’s pilot testing and findings. All the pilot and eventual users will be put through a Do-No-Harm and Conflict Sensitivity training at the initial stages before the eventual roll-out of the App.