Publications

United States Holocaust Museum

Pavlova, Pavlina. “Addressing the security risks of anti-Roma hate speech on social media platforms.” Yale University Genocide Studies Program: Mass Atrocities in the Digital Era Working Paper #4, February 2023.

This paper examines online hate speech and the associated security risks by focusing on user-generated content (UGC) targeting Roma and related moderation standards, tools, processes, and practices. The Romani people have experienced systemic racism, discrimination, and hostility across countries. These negative attitudes are perpetuated, broadcast, and intensified in the online space in the form of hateful and racist speech or incitement to violence and genocide. The paper illustrates cases of anti-Roma narratives and their translation into the online realm while mapping their harmful impacts on the Romani communities and individuals. These observations are instrumentalized to examine the challenges and tensions that platforms encounter in moderating online content. It is proposed that AI-based detection tools are integral to tackling hate speech, but due to the highly contextual nature of hateful content and its differentiated risks, they are unfit for being the exclusive means for decision-making. Content moderation models can be effective when implemented holistically with each layer extending the security and compensating for the limitations of the other. Social media providers must follow a victim-sensitive approach to tackle the asymmetric threats that hate speech presents to minority, marginalized, and other vulnerable groups.

(2007) Economist Sept. 27

Hemmer, Kathryn. “An Assessment of Two Atrocity Risks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2023” Yale University Genocide Studies Program Working Paper Series #39, 8 May 2023.

An assessment of two plausible mass atrocity scenarios that could develop in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) before or following the 2023 DRC general election; how the United States and other actors can take preventive action to prevent such large-scale civilian casualties.

(2007) openDemocracy Oct. 11

Routledge; 3 edition (September 28, 2008)

Bultmann, Daniel, Mykola Makhortykh, David Simon, Roberto Ulloa, & Eve M. Zucker. (2022). “Digital Archive of Memorialization of Mass Atrocities (DAMMA) Workshop Whitepaper.” Yale University Genocide Studies Program: Mass Atrocities in the Digital Era Working Paper #3.

This whitepaper addresses the prospect of creating a digital archive for the memorialization of mass atrocities (abbreviated herein as DAMMA). It is based on the proceedings of a virtual workshop held in October 2021 that addressed questions regarding the scope, form, usages, and development of such an archive.

Bultmann, Daniel, Mykola Makhortykh, David Simon, Roberto Ulloa, & Eve M. Zucker. (2022). Digital Archive of Memorialization of Mass Atrocities (DAMMA) Workshop Whitepaper. Yale University Genocide Studies Program: Mass Atrocities in the Digital Era Working Paper #3.

This whitepaper addresses the prospect of creating a digital archive for the memorialization of mass atrocities (abbreviated herein as DAMMA). It is based on the proceedings of a virtual workshop held in October 2021 that addressed questions regarding the scope, form, usages, and development of such an archive.

The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Program

Australian Literary Review, Dec. 5, 2007

Olivia Mooney, Kate Pundyk, Nathaniel Raymond and David Simon. “Social Media Evidence of Alleged Gross Human Rights Abuses: Improving Preservation and Access Through Policy Reform.” Mass Atrocities in the Digital Era Initiative (MADE) Working Paper No. 1, March 2021.

Potentially crucial digital evidence of gross human rights violations that occur outside the United States is being lost. The absence of a specific legal mandate and protocol by which this evidence could be routinely preserved and accessed is a problem that the United States Congress will need to help solve. This paper builds on the Yale Genocide Studies Program’s Mass Atrocities in the Digital Era (MADE) initiative’s three-month consultation process with a diverse range of civil society stakeholders working to improve preservation of digital evidence. It considers how U.S. potential liability has limited sharing social media data with stakeholders in the human rights community and presents three potential legal processes to address this issue. This work promotes justice and accountability for alleged gross human rights abuses.

Genocide Studies Program, Macmillan Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT.

alAggad, Haya; Samantha Castro; Min Byung Chae; Robbie DeMontis; Lucy Edmunds; Canaan Harris; Annabelle Ho; Isabelle Lee; Jane Miller; Ruby Park; Kate Pundyk; Linette Rivera-Rodríguez; Luke Stevens; Raisha Waller; Namra Zulfiqar, wityh David Simon “TOWARDS JUSTICE AND SECURITY: PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES FOR THE YAZIDI IN 2020 AND BEYOND”  Semianr project, August 2, 2020.

The Transitional Justice Working Group (TJGW) tasked itself with devising a multi-dimensional transitional justice strategy for the United States government to implement in response of the Da’esh’s crimes against the Yazidi. Using the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018, herby known as the Elie Wiesel Act, as legal framework, the TJGW created a comprehensive transitional justice strategy focused on restitution, reintegration, and prevention. By considering the past, present, and future of the Yazidi, this report has developed a transitional justice strategy focused on improving the current reality of the Yazidi and developing a better future for the Yazidi and Iraq as a whole.  [Updated 9 April 2021]

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (November 22, 2003)

Zucker, E. M., Ulloa, R., Simon, D.J., Makhortykh, M., & Bultmann, B. (2024). Archiving Holocaust Digital Memorialization: The Lublin District Camps. Digital Archive of Memorialization of Mass Atrocities (DAMMA) Workshop Whitepaper. Yale University: Genocide Studies Program: Mass Atrocities in the Digital Era Working Paper #6.

This white paper considers the potential for a digital archive for the memorialization of mass atrocities (abbreviated herein as DAMMA) that would integrate artificial intelligence (AI) both in the archive’s creation and its use. Based on the proceedings of a workshop held in July 2023 in Bochum, Germany, at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS), the workshop addressed conceptual and practical questions regarding the scope, form, benefits and limitations, usage, development, and ethics of DAMMA. The workshop also considered the parameters of a pilot version of DAMMA, focusing on the memorialization practices regarding Holocaust sites in the Lublin district (e.g., Majdanek or Sobibor).