An Investigation of Misinformation Harms Related to Social Media during Two Humanitarian Crises

Abstract

During humanitarian crises, a large amount of information is circulated in a short period of time, either to withstand or respond to such crises. Such crises also give rise to misinformation that spreads within and outside the affected community. Such misinformation may result in information harms that can generate serious short term or long-term consequences. In the context of humanitarian crises, we propose a synthesis of misinformation harms and assess people’s perception of harm based on their work experience in the crisis response arena or their direct exposure to crises.