Social listening guidelines

Social listening of misinformation, disinformation, malinformation and hate speech enable a better and more wholistic understanding of harmful trends on and offline, and are stepping-stones for building a strategy for responding and mitigating these harms based on empirical evidence. 

This set of evidence can be used to decide what direct or indirect, preventative or reactive, responses may be needed to be untaken to protect forcibly displaced people, host communities, and UNHCR staff from the real-life harms these narratives can have. Social listening of misinformation, disinformation and hate speech on social media is a crucial step in addressing information risks through its contribution at the field and global levels to:

• Protection/situation analysis

• Political analysis

• Defining protection responses (including which stakeholders to engage)

• Longitudinal analysis

• Risks around protection space

• Potential evidence in framework of analysis of mass atrocity crimes

These guidelines provide essential information on leveraging social listening to address information risks in displacement settings. By understanding online conversations and media trends, UNHCR colleagues can identify and respond swiftly to harmful narratives and false information which raises protection concerns for forcibly displaced and stateless people as well as UNHCR and humanitarian partners. These guidelines aim to equip colleagues with strategies to detect and analyse digital content effectively, enabling proactive interventions to safeguard refugee rights and well-being. Through accurate information dissemination and collaboration with local stakeholders, UNHCR can strengthen resilience against information risks and foster inclusive and supportive environments for refugees globally.