Critical partnerships and collaboration
Information Risks arises from a confluence of technological, sociocultural, political, and economic factors that lie beyond the direct influence of any single organization or operation - in part because they can be cross-border in nature and are increasingly commercialized. They are whole-of-society issues which require a whole-of-society response.
Forcibly displaced and stateless communities are critical partners in deepening the contextual understanding of online information risks, their impact on individuals and communities, and critically playing a role in mitigating and addressing such risks. They are often best placed to inform and understand online conversations and are deeply aware of how misinformation or disinformation might increase protection risks.
In displacement contexts, the priority should be to minimize the real-world consequences of information risks affecting forcibly displaced and stateless populations, UNHCR personnel, and UNHCR’s reputation. To achieve this, strategic partnership and collaboration with other UN agencies, technology companies, NGOs and civil society organizations (particularly refugee-led), media development agencies, media outlets and journalists, and governments are essential to address challenges that extend beyond UNHCR’s specific responsibilities and capabilities. Stronger technology-related engagement with governments and the private sector with a focus on resource mobilization, co-creation, shared-value projects, and access to expertise are needed. Agile local partnerships will help to meet field needs and provide much needed linguistic and cultural expertise to inform a more nuanced understanding of the issues at play.
Partnerships and collaboration are key to developing a sustainable response, and ultimately, protecting communities from information risks. Mitigating them requires international cooperation and multi-stakeholder partnerships that are compliant with international human rights law and international humanitarian law, and companies are increasingly motivated to act. Neither advertisers nor users should want to see or indirectly fund the spread of hate and disinformation on digital platforms. For UNHCR colleagues, a distinction should be made between partnerships (e.g. partnering with a CSO to conduct social listening in a certain context, and protection advocacy targets (which may lead to partnership and may not). Generally, colleagues are encouraged to work with existing coordination structures to strengthen collaboration where possible (for example through the Protection Cluster and/or Community Engagement working group).
In line with the Digital Transformation Strategy, UNHCR has increased advocacy and strengthened partnerships with the private sector, including technology and social media companies, at local, regional and global levels to address protection risks such as trafficking networks operating online and online hate speech and disinformation that can stoke racism and xenophobia. This will also include promoting safe online humanitarian spaces as well as the respect for protection and accountability principles.
Tech companies are taking action. But they need help to navigate difficult ethical and legal issues, understand contexts on the ground – especially in conflict and humanitarian situations – and to build business models based on a healthy information ecosystem. UNHCR wants to make these connections. We are already learning, testing and collaborating with multi-sector stakeholders. One such form of collaboration is the Multistakeholder Pledge: Digital Protection - Prevention of the Harmful Impact of Hate Speech, Misinformation, and Disinformation done at the Global Refugee Forum in 2023. The pledge seeks to increase the number of stakeholders (including private sector, academia, governments, and civil society) taking action to prevent the harmful impact on displaced and stateless populations, and on humanitarian action, of information risks on their platforms.