Friday, August 17, 2018

Social Media Exacerbating Ethnic Relations in Kazakhstan, Isbayev Says


Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 16 – In many countries, posts on social media have the effect of intensifying disputes over various issues. In Kazakhstan now, Saule Isbayeva says, many participants in the Kazakh segment of Facebook are increasingly upset by posts attacking their ethnic group even as they increasingly attack or at least do not oppose attacks on others.

            There is a danger, the Kazakh analyst says, that “sooner or later,” these disputes “will go beyond the limits of the Internet and then it will become much more difficult to struggle against them.” The question now is what should be done to limit that danger (camonitor.kz/31502-feysbuk-kak-pole-boya-stoit-li-vmeshivatsya-v-setevye-mezhnacionalnye-razborki.html).

                Serik Beysembayev, an analyst at Astana’s Institute for International Economics and Politics, says that what is going on is the growth of “online thinking,” which occurs when Facebook users become attached to “group stereotypes” and thus find it easier to engage in controversy than to reach any agreement with those who disagree with them. 

            People who seem to be irreconcilable online can often reach accord if they meet face to face, but that doesn’t happen often enough.  As a result, “today, social networks recall a global arena of battle. Conflicts arise everywhere and for the most varied reasons. The defense of ethnic identity is only one of them.”

            Online conflicts are “especially high in those countries where the Internet and social networks are only beginning to experience massive development and the level of information culture among citizens remains low,” the analyst says. That is the case in Kazakhstan with Facebook.

            Last year, Beysembayev continues, he took part in a project which studied hate speech in the Kazakh segment of that part of social media. “It turned out,” he says, “that such language was provoked above all by ethnic and religious stereotypes” and that the resulting controversies led to “’the normalization’” and acceptance of “toxic” judgments.

            The country needs to be concerned about this, but he suggests that adopting new laws will not solve the problem. Instead, activists need to promote new “rules of public communication” that will gradually spread through users of social media. 

            Maksim Kramarenko, a specialist at Kazakhstan’s Institute for Eurasian Policy, argues that “social networks reflect the attitudes which exist in society.” And therefore, what one sees on Facebook is a reflection, albeit sometimes distorted, of what in fact exists. The country must thus address these broader problems rather than dealing only with social media.
           
            Unlike in many other countries, he continues, “astroturfing – artificially created public opinion” – is not yet a major problem in Kazakhstan. But Kazakhs will be making a serious mistake if they think they can change attitudes by changing what is on social media alone. They must address the broader issues those media are taking up.

            He points to the dangers inherent in historical discussions. When specialists revise their judgments about the past and place the blame on Moscow for this or that policy affecting Kazakhstan, many Kazakhs read that as justifying hostility to ethnic Russians who had nothing to do with those policies.  That is something scholars and officials must counter.

            And historian Nurtay Mustafayev says that there are some things that can be done so that Facebook and other social media networks won’t exacerbate problems. He calls for ending anonymity on the web. Those who take part in discussions should be required to give their names. Otherwise they will feel freer to say more extreme things.

            But at the same time, he suggests, it is important not to overreact to what is on Facebook.  “The issue of inter-ethnic relations is hardly the most popular” on that branch of social media. Most people posting there are posting about other things and that too must be kept in mind.

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