AI Map – Social Media, Gender & Peacebuilding in Conflict Zones

AI Map investigates the role of social media in armed conflicts, with a particular focus on the impact of digital polarization on women in crisis regions. Using the conflict in Northern Ethiopia (2020–2022) as a case study, the project explores how social media has intensified violence, spread hate speech, and systematically erased marginalized voices—especially those of women who have been subjected to sexual violence.

Despite the promise of digital platforms to amplify the voices of the unheard, the research reveals a troubling paradox: women who suffer deeply during conflicts often remain silenced in the digital sphere—their stories untold, their perspectives excluded. This project seeks to interrogate these dynamics and contribute to shaping digital technologies that foster inclusivity and peace.

Project Goals:

• Analyzing digital violence and polarization: Investigating how social media fuels conflict and identifying narratives that systematically exclude women.

• Uncovering gender-based marginalization: Documenting the invisibility of women’s voices in digital representations of war, particularly in relation to conflict-related sexual violence.

• Developing inclusive technologies: Exploring how AI tools (e.g., for detecting hate speech or disinformation) can be designed to amplify marginalized voices rather than suppress them.

• Strengthening peacebuilding efforts: Contributing to strategies that meaningfully include women as active participants in peace processes—both online and offline.

AI Map advocates for a technological future that challenges power structures, rewrites dominant narratives, and brings visibility to perspectives that have long been silenced—particularly those of women in conflict zones.

To further strengthen the foundation for inclusive and socially impactful AI research, Prof. Chris Biemann from the Hub of Computing and Data Science (HCDS) at Universität Hamburg, in collaboration with Prof. Adem Chanie Ali from the Department of Journalism and Communications at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia, has received a $60,000 grant from the Google Award for Inclusion Research Program.