Social media gives voice to several sections of society

An academic at Hamad Bin Khalifa University ( HBKU) has noted that freedom of expression on social media is very important so that the right message is conveyed without fear. “Social media has emerged as a major tool for expressing our ideas and has given voice to many sections of  society who were even unknown otherwise,” Dr Amal Mohamed al-Malki, founding dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at HBKU, told Gulf Times. “Many youth and women are using it to express their thoughts and concerns. So freedom of expression is very essential in giving voice to this large groups of the society,” she explained.Dr al-Malki was speaking on the sidelines of the International Conference on ‘Social Media: Challenges and Ways to Promote Freedoms and Protect Activists’ that is taking place at Ritz-Carlton Doha.“This conference is very important  and very timely. Our college has a master’s programme in digital humanities and societies as well another one in women in society and development. Social media has become a platform for activism. Most of the youth and women are using the social  media for various purposes, social movements and the youth in particular are the proponents  of these movements,” explained Dr al-Malki.According to the official, women play an important role in the use of the new dispensation of social media. “Social media gives voices to many sections of the society who were not heard before. Definitely, most of the women movements in the region started through social media. Now we find  social movements are led by women asking for justice, asking for quality whether in education, employment or other sectors,” explained the dean.However, the official noted that social media has to be used judiciously and disinformation through digital platform is a major threat that should be tackled at the earliest through various  measures. “Disinformation was there for a very long time and the emergence of social media has become a tool for such kind of propaganda. Digital platforms are misused to spread hate news. Hate speech could be targeted at people with different background or ideology. Our college as well as HBKU and Qatar Computer Research Institute are at the forefront of  doing several researches about disinformation on social media and how to counter it,” she added.