Mass Atrocities in the Digital Era (MADE)

The Mass Atrocities in the Digital Era (MADE) initiative is a first-of-its-kind program formed within Yale University’s Genocide Studies Program. Its mission is to study the role that emerging technology plays in mass atrocities with a focus on accountability, corporate responsibility, and genocide studies scholarship.

MADE aims to cultivate a new generation of expert practitioners and scholars while developing legal, normative, and business frameworks necessary to protect human rights in the digital age.

The creation of MADE is a response to the need for the field of genocide studies to undergo systematic update in order to address the impact of digital technologies, ranging from ICTs and social media to digitized identities. MADE examines how these changes influence the commission of mass atrocities, as well as the possibilities for both preventing atrocities and more effectively prosecuting those responsible for them.

MADE will incorporate that expertise with experts from across campus, including the Jackson Institute (soon-to-be School) of Global Affairs, Yale School of Management, Yale Law School, the School of Public Health, and elsewhere in the college itself. In its nascency, the initiative has already engaged in several activities that reflect its objectives, beginning with:

A March 2020 panel discussion and workshop that brought together scholars and legal practitioners from around the globe to address the connection between social media and the alleged incitement of genocide in contemporary cases;
A consultative process among stakeholders from human rights organizations, Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) activists, social media companies, international law experts, and lawmakers addressing the challenges of using social media evidence in legal proceedings pertaining to alleged mass atrocities;
A White Paper presenting a basic framework for addressing those challenges in the form of a Social Media Data Request Mechanism and Focal Point.

Disentangling Disinformation series

We live in an era where the confines of understanding are not limited to a lack of information but rather a bombardment of countering narratives. It can be daunting to sift through the barrage of messaging, leaving room for the simple yet harmful decision to ignore it all. What you see online is not necessarily what is happening in the world, and the disinformation we are encountered with is costing us the ability to stay accurately informed. This series of teach-ins aims to provide tools to navigate the current landscape of media.

This is a space for anyone, from the person who feels confident about their viewpoints and their understanding of world issues, to those who do not even know where to begin and may be scared to ask. Through the lens of a variety of disciplines including journalism, sociology, political science, and psychology, each session will equip you with essential guidelines to make sense of what’s what and cultivate a culture of conscious media consumption. Sessions will conclude with a quick reference guide.

All sessions online via Zoom.

SPRING 2024
February 27 \| 12:00PM	The Truth As The Path To Justice: Reporting Russian War Crimes	Nataliya Gumenyuk Public Interest Journalism Lab
March 8 \| 4:00PM	Barbarophilia: Into a Foreign Tongue Our Sorrow and Love Pass	George Syrimis Hellenic Studies Program, Yale University
March 26 \| 4:00PM	Selling the Extreme: How Terrorists Use Marketing to Disseminate Their Propaganda	Anna Kruglova Terrorism Studies, University of Salford Manchester
March 27 \| 12:00PM	Coercive Control at the Micro and Macro Levels	Nicole Correri Department of Religion, Boston University
April 1 \| 12:00PM	Doxing and Denunciation: Unpacking the Court of Public Opinion	Daniel Trottier Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam
April 4 \| 9:00AM	Tracing Information Trickles: Making Space for Propaganda with Internet Shutdowns and Information Blackouts	Nishant Shah School of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong
April 11 \| 4:00PM	Palestine and the Power of Language	Elena Dudum Writer
April 22 \| 4:00PM	Ads Will Destroy Us — Unless We Destroy Them First	Nandini Jammi Check My Ads
FALL 2023
November 29 \| 4:30PM	Online Hate & Offline Harm: Implications of Social Media Usage in Humanitarian Settings	Federica Du Pasquier International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
December 5 \| 4:00PM	Online Speech, Offline Actions: Mechanisms Linking Digital Discourse and Its Offline Consequences	Daniel Karell Department of Sociology, Yale University
December 7 \| 4:00PM	Visual Investigations: Reporting With and Verifying Online Open Source Information	Haley Willis Visual Investigations, The New York Times