On 20 November 2025, the Centre for Human Rights (CHR), Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, in collaboration with UNESCO, hosted the second webinar in the Social Media 4 Peace (SM4P) Phase II series. Building on the foundational discussions of the first session, this webinar focused on advocacy strategies, coalition-building and platform engagement. The virtual gathering provided a critical space for 35 participants representing civil society, academia, media and youth and women’s organisations to share expertise on navigating the complexities of digital governance. The series serves as an essential precursor to the upcoming workshop in Cape Town, designed to equip stakeholders with the necessary tools to translate research and lived experiences into actionable policy interventions.

The session featured expert facilitation from CHR’s Belinda Matore and Tendai Mbanje, alongside guest facilitator Dr. Chuks Otioma from the University of Glasgow, who was representing Research ICT Africa, who grounded the technical discussions in practical human rights frameworks and legal perspectives. Belinda Matore led the initial segment by addressing the importance of forming and sustaining resilient coalitions. She emphasised that coordinated responses are vital for holding digital platforms accountable and that advocacy campaigns must be both inclusive and gender-sensitive. By sharing approaches to sustained cross-sector collaboration, the facilitation highlighted that digital rights protections are most effective when they address the specific online harms faced by marginalized groups through a unified front.

The second session focused specifically on the journey from evidence to policy and academic impact. Facilitated by Dr. Chuks Otioma and Tendai Mbanje, this segment provided a comprehensive roadmap for translating research, monitoring data and lived experiences into tangible recommendations and high-impact publications. Dr. Otioma shared insights into how rigorous academic standards can be applied to digital rights monitoring to ensure that findings resonate within both scholarly circles and policy-making arenas. This session underscored the necessity of aligning advocacy strategies with international human rights norms to ensure that outputs, such as policy briefs and academic papers, are both empirically sound and persuasively argued for platform content moderation.

The interactive portion of the webinar allowed participants to reflect on the practical challenges of digital advocacy, ranging from limited resources and connectivity issues to the persistent problem of platform opacity. Despite these obstacles, the dialogue reinforced the idea that movements are significantly stronger when civil society and academia align their messaging. Participants concluded that continuous monitoring and evidence-gathering are required to counter evolving online harms effectively. The session successfully generated consolidated reflections and summary notes that will directly inform the design of the December workshop on information integrity, human rights, and peace in the digital age.

The Social Media 4 Peace project, led by UNESCO and implemented by the Centre for Human Rights, continues to promote resilience against online harms while supporting evidence-based policy engagement. Phase II of the project focuses on fostering a digital environment that respects human rights and strengthens democratic processes within South Africa. By reinforcing the skills, knowledge and networks necessary for digital rights advocacy, this webinar series ensures that stakeholders are well-prepared for ongoing SM4P activities and future multi-stakeholder dialogues.

For more information, please contact:

Belinda Matore 
Project Officer: Expression, Information and Digital Rights Unit
Centre for Human Rights
br.matore@up.ac.za

Tendai Mbanje Project Officer: Expression, Information and Digital Rights Unit
Centre for Human Rights
tendai.mbanje@up.ac.za