Information integrity sector mapping
United Nations Global Principles for Information Integrity
This Global Principles for Information Integrity launched in 2024 following broad consultations with Member States, civil society, academia, the tech sector and UN entities, including UNHCR. They specifically refer to refugees as a vulnerable group. The principles serve as a framework to combat misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech while safeguarding human rights, including freedom of expression. Their goal is to create a healthier digital information ecosystem that promotes truth, transparency, and trust in public discourse. Their purpose is to provide guidelines, standards and a framework for advocacy with different stakeholders, balancing combating information risks without infringing on freedom of expression. The UN Global Principles are not a Member States-negotiated tool nor are they binding, but they are useful as a global reference and especially as an advocacy tool. The UN Global Principles have been translated into the six official languages of the UN.
The Five Core Principles:
- Societal Trust and Resilience
- Strengthen public confidence in reliable information.
- Equip societies to resist and respond to harmful misinformation.
- Healthy Incentives
- Encourage tech companies and advertisers to prioritize integrity over profits.
- Reduce business models that thrive on spreading harmful content.
- Public Empowerment
- Give users more control over their online experience and personal data.
- Promote media literacy to help people make informed decisions.
- Independent, Free, and Pluralistic Media
- Support diverse and independent media outlets.
- Ensure access to accurate and fact-based reporting.
- Transparency and Research
- Demand openness from platforms about how information spreads.
- Provide data access for researchers to analyze information environments.
United Nations Global Digital Compact
Negotiated by 193 Member States and informed by global consultations, the Compact commits governments to upholding international law and human rights online and to taking concrete steps to make the digital space safe and secure.
The Digital Compact addresses information integrity as a fundamental component of fostering an inclusive, open, safe, and secure digital environment. Recognizing the detrimental impact of misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech, the Digital Compact outlines commitments and urgent actions to promote the reliability and accuracy of information online. The Digital Compact also specifically references refugees and internally displaced populations.
The Compact recognizes the critical contributions of the private sector, technical communities, researchers and civil society to digital cooperation. It calls on all stakeholders to engage in realizing an open, safe and secure digital future for all, with a focus as follow:
- Close all digital divides and deliver an inclusive digital economy
- Connect all people, schools and hospitals to the Internet
- Make digital technologies more accessible and affordable to everyone, including in diverse languages and formats
- Increase investment in digital public goods and digital public infrastructure
- Support women and youth innovators and small and medium enterprises
- Build an inclusive, open, safe, and secure digital space
- Strengthen legal and policy frameworks to protect children online
- Ensure that the Internet remains open, global, stable and secure
- Promote and facilitate access to independent, fact-based and timely information to counter mis- and disinformation
- Strengthen international data governance and govern AI for humanity
- Support the development of interoperable national data governance frameworks
- Establish an international scientific panel on AI and a global AI policy dialogue
- Develop AI capacity-building partnerships and consider options for a Global Fund on AI
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) harmful information response framework is intended to guide organizations in designing and implementing effective response strategies to the consequences of the spread of harmful information during armed conflicts.
Spearheaded by the ICRC, the framework is the product of broad multistakeholder and collaborative processes, involving a large number of humanitarian and human rights organizations. UNHCR also support its development. The framework draws on dialogue and collaboration with stakeholders in government, the United Nations, academia, civil society, and the private sector.
The Global Refugee Forum in 2023 marked the first time digital protection, and preventing misinformation, disinformation and hate speech specifically was on the agenda of a high-level Member States platform. This goal of this innovative and ambitious pledge is to scale up the number of practical, inclusive activities undertaken to respond, mitigate and help prevent the harmful impact that hate speech, misinformation and disinformation on digital platforms can have on people forced to flee and on humanitarian action.
This pledge contributes to Global Compact on Refugees / GRF high-level outcome 4: “Voluntary, sustainable return, reintegration, address root causes, prevent conflict and build peace”. This pledge further supports Sustainable Development Goal progress: access to information integrity is a key indicator for goals including SDGs 4, 10, 13 and 16.
Championed by Google, this multistakeholder pledge brought in novel commitments from the private sector – including Google and Meta – as well as Governments, civil society, media organisations, academia, refugee-led organisations, ICRC, and UN partners, ranging from UN Peacekeeping to UNESCO to the Office on the Prevention of Genocide.
UNHCR is keen to collaborate with a wider range of organisations and stakeholders, for example digital rights organisations, at technical, policy and advocacy levels. This multistakeholder pledge may be a useful advocacy tool for partners as well, offering positive visibility and access to a network of diverse organisations working to strengthen information integrity. If you’re interested to know more please get in touch with the UNHCR Digital Service and Information Integrity Team.
The Rabat Plan of Action on the prohibition of advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence brings together the conclusions and recommendations from several OHCHR expert workshops. By grounding the debate in international human rights law, the objective has been threefold: to gain a better understanding of legislative patterns, judicial practices and policies regarding the concept of incitement to national, racial, or religious hatred, while ensuring full respect for freedom of expression as outlined in articles 19 and 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); to arrive at a comprehensive assessment of the state of implementation of the prohibition of incitement in conformity with international human rights law and; to identify possible actions at all levels
This Anti-Scam Handbook v1.0 culminates from the work of UNDP and its coalition of experts across diverse sectors at the global and national levels. It addresses the gaps in global understanding on digital scams in developing countries; provides a toolkit to support countries in driving more effective multi-stakeholder collaborative responses; and presents case evidence across Africa, Asia Pacific, and Latin America.
UNDP, Strategic Guidance: Information Integrity: Forging a pathway to Truth, Resilience and Trust
This strategic guidance is intended to provide coherence both strategically and programmatically. At the strategic level, the document explores information integrity as it relates to UNDP’s mandate and thematic areas of interest and provides a conceptual framework of terminology and definitions. At the programmatic level, it provides practical guidance for context analysis and programme design. The aim is to support UNDP country, regional and thematic teams, and their partners, to develop effective responses to information pollution. It offers guiding principles, an analytical framework and a set of proposed programmatic outcomes and outputs.
This policy sets out the approach, principles, roles and responsibilities and processes by which United Nations peacekeeping operations and Headquarters will strengthen information integrity and address misinformation, disinformation and hate speech.
While not a new imperative for peacekeeping operations, this policy has been developed in response to the grave and growing threat to information integrity posed by harmful information in peacekeeping settings. False and/or manipulated information can weaken consent and support for peacekeeping, reduce the space for mandate implementation, threaten the safety and security of peacekeepers and fuel divisions in host countries.
United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and OHCHR B-Tech
The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are the global standard for preventing and addressing the risk of adverse impacts on human rights involving business activity, and they provide the internationally accepted framework for enhancing standards and practices with regard to business and human rights. They were developed by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises. The Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed the Guiding Principles in its resolution 17/4 of 16 June 2011.
The B-Tech Project provides authoritative guidance and resources for implementing the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human rights (UNGPs) in the technology space. In 2019, UN Human Rights launched the project after consultations with civil society, business, States, and other experts about the scope of the B-Tech Project. The B-Tech project is structured along four strategic focus areas: Addressing Human Rights Risks in Business Models, Human Rights Due Diligence and End-Use, Accountability and Remedy, and “A Smart Mix of Measures”: Exploring regulatory and policy responses to human rights challenges linked to digital technologies. Adding to this, the project also explores the responsibilities of investors in the technology space, as a cross-cutting theme.
UNESCO, Guidelines for the Governance of Digital Platforms
The Guidelines for the Governance of Digital Platforms outline a set of duties, responsibilities and roles for States, digital platforms, intergovernmental organizations, civil society, media, academia, the technical community, and other stakeholders to enable the environment where freedom of expression and information are in the core of digital platforms governance processes. The Guidelines were produced through a multi-stakeholder consultation that gathered more than 10,000 comments from 134 countries. These global-scale consultations fostered inclusive participation, ensuring a diversity of voices to be heard, including those from groups in situation of marginalization and vulnerability.
United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech
In response to the alarming trends of growing xenophobia, racism and intolerance, violent misogyny, antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred around the world, UN Secretary-General António Guterres launched the United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech in 2019. The Plan of Action is the first UN-wide initiative designed to tackle hate speech and provides a road map on how the Organization can support and complement States' efforts. The strategy emphasizes the need to address hate holistically, while respecting freedom of opinion and expression, and to collaborate with relevant stakeholders, including civil society organizations, media outlets, tech companies and social media platforms. In 2021, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming 18 June as the International Day for Countering Hate Speech.
WHO and UNICEF: How to Build and Infodemic Insights Report in Six Steps
Within a noisy information environment that affects people’s perceptions, attitudes and health decisions, there is often a gap between health guidance recommendations and the population’s behaviour. In these cases, infodemic insights can help to inform an emergency response or the response of a health programme. This manual provides a quick overview of the steps required to develop an infodemic insights report that can be used during an emergency response or for routine health programming (where so-called low-level infodemics may be more common).
CDAC Network is the global alliance committed to ensuring people can access safe, trustworthy information during crises. The network brings together UN agencies, the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, local and international NGOs, media development and specialist communications entities. CDAC Network offers members access to a Community of Practice to foster learning, support and collaboration on information integrity.