Response strategies

Addressing risks to information integrity necessitates a wide range of proactive, early warning and reactive responses including but not limited protection, communications and advocacy. The following section outlines a number of emerging response strategies and relevant tools informed both by UNHCR's field pilots' learnings from other humanitarian, tech and policy practitioners. 

Response Activities 

Emerging from UNHCR pilots and partner activities, monitoring systems for online information risks should be initiated at the country-level (and potentially regional level) to better understand protection and reputational risks. To enhance monitoring efforts, UNHCR recommends fostering civil society partnerships with digital rights groups to conduct regular monitoring, leveraging their local expertise and networks. Convening stakeholders to set determine risks, set monitoring parameters, enhance capacity, and foster collaboration is essential. Acknowledging that information risks can manifest offline, integrating local knowledge into monitoring efforts will bolster effectiveness and encompass the full spectrum of information risk activities. Further exploration of social listening and testing of new tools is necessary. As data accumulates, reporting will be essential to evaluate their effectiveness compared to manual monitoring. This analysis should determine the suitability of these tools for monitoring online information risks. 

Communications colleagues should engage in proactive (pre-bunking and bona fide information provision) and provide additional training, mentoring, and information to relevant colleagues on social media response and best practices, tools, etc. Proactive activities are crucial for building resilient communities. The provision of trusted and bona fide information through resources like UNHCR Help, which provides country-level information for refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless people, are crucial. Furthermore, digital inclusion and literacy training for affected communities are critical for enhancing their safety online.

Communications strategies at both the country and regional levels should be updated to specifically address information risks and incorporate communications activities geared towards tackling misinformation and disinformation campaigns. Social media specialists should lead an online trainings and information sessions with information risk focal points, including both communications and protection staff. 

Global advocacy messaging should be integrated into media relations efforts. Trainings, guidance, and resources should be provided to colleagues to enhance media relations skills for relevant colleagues. This includes equipping them with strategies for effective communication, building relationships with targeted journalists, and conveying key messages consistently across various media platforms. 

Collaborative efforts enable the exchange of accurate information, the crafting of coordinated responses to imminent threats, and the fostering of a unified front against information risks. By building a resilient network capable of dispelling narratives, the end goal of safeguarding refugees and upholding the protection mission of UNHCR can be realised. A collaborative approach can also streamline communication with internet platforms, identify pivotal areas for research or evaluation, and enable the design of innovative interventions. 

Relevant organizations, government ministries focused on addressing information risks and civil society organisations (including media development and media literacy organisations) should be convened. These groups complement existing partnerships with refugee advocacy organisations, human rights organisations and United Nations agencies. In certain contexts, faith-based organizations have proven crucial partners, largely maintaining neutrality or expressing support for refugees during the duration of the escalation of information risks and therefore offering an opportunity for advocacy and engagement toward solution-oriented approaches.  

Tech companies carry a significant responsibility for fostering platforms free from information risks. While effective advocacy for platform safety is often conducted at the global level, leveraging established partnerships and constructive dialogue at the local level, by focusing on local dynamics, can be highly constructive. Vigorous advocacy efforts are essential to press for transparency, ethical content moderation and robust measures to address the adverse impacts of disinformation campaigns on vulnerable populations.  

Engaging Affected Communities 

Drawing from UNHCR’s Guidance on Racism and Xenophobia, affected communities must be included in the design, implementation, review and evaluation of UNHCR’s strategies to address and respond to information risks and must also be periodically and effectively consulted in the implementation of related activities and impact assessments.

Progress towards proactively addressing and responding to information risks can and must be measured both in objective terms (i.e. number of incidents), but also from a subjective terms (i.e. fear / security perceptions).

The following aspects should be considered when designing and implementing response activities:

• Ensure communication channels with both communities of persons of concern and host communities to discuss perceptions, attitudes, and to understand systems of values and expectations.
• Actively engage host communities and persons of concern to discuss issues related to information risks and determine whether communities perceive that certain incidents have racist or hateful motives.
  • Actively engage host communities and persons of concern in a participatory process to design, implement, monitor and evaluate approaches to address information risks.
• Ensure that victims of racial discrimination, xenophobia and hate speech have access to effective judicial, quasi-judicial and administrative remedies and are protected in the process of seeking justice from intimidation or other forms of human rights violations.
• Advise victims with regard to avenues for submitting individual complaints, report incidents of racial discrimination, xenophobia, hate crimes or hate speech
• Advise victims on access to psychological and protection services.
• Provide free legal aid to individuals (under UNHCR’s mandate) who pursue legal remedies for violations related to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and hate speech and related intolerance.