About this toolkit

This toolkit was designed by UNHCR to help humanitarians understand, respond to and help prevent the harmful impact of risks to information integrity on digital platforms, such as misinformation, disinformation and hate speech, with a consistent approach.

The toolkit has been developed with a focus on contexts where such risks on digital platforms cause harm to forcibly displaced communities and stateless people and humanitarian organisations working with and for them. It aims to provide tools and guidelines on:

• Identifying a range of different types of misinformation, disinformation and hate speech.
• Responding to subsequent risks in line with emerging practices.
• Enabling a holistic, multi-functional and multi-partner response.

Who Is This Toolkit For?

Produced by UNHCR in collaboration with humanitarian partners and informed by UNHCR field-based pilot projects, this toolkit is a resource for UNHCR personnel and authorised partners. An external version is available for the wider humanitarian sector comprised of select tools and insights which may be of general application by humanitarian organisations in different contexts. UNHCR colleauges should use the log-in feature to access additional content. This toolkit should not be interpreted as UNHCR guidance or policy and remains a living document to be updated in line with future findings.

The toolkit outlines a whole-of-organisation approach. It contains core actions to monitor and detect, analyse and respond to risks to information integrity, enabling actions to support implementation of relevant resources and SOPs with details on how operations and teams can implement activities in practice. While recognizing that misinformation, disinformation and hate speech can lead to harm for forcibly displaced and stateless population through offline or traditional channels (including but is not limited to television, radio, print media, and word of mouth), and that there is a complex interplay between information moving back and forth between offline and online spaces, this toolkit focuses on understanding and responding to risks emanating from their presence on digital platforms.

It is important to note that no single tool can meet all the needs of different population groups, particularly in constantly changing and dynamic displacement settings. The resources included in this toolkit are therefore considered most effective when used in a complementary manner and informed by contextual specificities.

This resource is designed to help strengthen UNHCR’s response to online risks to information integrity as part of priority actions identified in the Digital Transformation Strategy 2024-2026, Digital Protection priority outcome. Under this priority outcome, this toolkit seeks to fulfil the priority action of developing tailored practical guidance and tools in priority areas, including enabling protection risk assessments in respect to digital technologies, including as part of due diligence processes and data protection impact assessments.

UNHCR is grateful to the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations for the funding which made this toolkit possible.

Toolkit Sections

This toolkit seeks to set out the approach, parameters, methods, and processes for a consistent approach to strengthening information integrity through addressing risks to information integrity such as misinformation, disinformation and hate speech.

This toolkit contains four sections:

1. Understanding the Challenge

2. Practical Tools

3. External Engagement

4. Additional Resources

These sections aim to contextualize and bring together emerging global practice on addressing risks to information integrity through both internally developed tools as well as those developed by partners and other organisations. UNHCR and partners can use the tools and sub-tools – or be inspired by them – to develop their own and adapt to specific operational contexts.