Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair
In today’s post-truth era, where “objective truth” has lost influence in the public sphere, it is becoming increasingly difficult for humanitarians, who seek to preserve human life, to carry out their work.
“The post-truth era has dramatic repercussions on humanitarian work, not only because it affects NGOs’ reputation, but also because it presents a distorted vision of the reality of people in need,” says Lubiana Gosp-Server, a humanitarian and development professional.
Humanitarians tackle hidden or poorly understood social issues and help people in difficult or extreme situations. All of this is threatened if people are no longer able to discern what is true or real.
Despite its contemporary prevalence in public discourse, fake news is not new. Propaganda and rumors have always existed and are something that humanitarians increasingly need to manage during the course of their duties, especially in the current “infoglut” environment of being bombarded with information from all sides, which exacerbates the problem.
High levels of propaganda and false information damage public trust and have led people to question whether humanitarians really have humanity’s best interests at heart.
Humanitarian Work and Its Challenges
The modern concept of humanitarianism was born from the founding of the Red Cross after the 1859 Battle of Solferino and the establishment of the First Geneva Convention, which sought to limit harm to human beings, particularly in times of war. Humanitarians uphold a set of moral principles, and though they vary by organization, they usually include high standards of truth, honesty, and integrity.
“At its core, a humanitarian is a person dedicated to reducing suffering and protecting human dignity. Whether in war zones, after natural disasters, or during health emergencies, humanitarians put people first,” explains the nonprofit Action Against Hunger.
Humanitarian organizations are not without their faults. They suffer from several issues, including a lack of accountability to those accessing their services and a history of furthering Western imperialism. Humanitarian organizations, in many instances, are responsible for supporting the political or military agendas of hegemonic powers, which often fund their work.
“NGOs have in many cases become extensions of Western foreign policy. This has most obviously been seen in contexts such as Afghanistan where many NGOs supported and formed an integral part of U.S.-led stabilization activities following the U.S. invasion in 2001,” states Jonathan Whittall, head of humanitarian analysis at Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Humanitarian aid has also been used as a tool to intervene in and impact a country’s sovereignty, raising concerns about the intent behind the work. For instance, the UN Peacekeeping missions have often aligned with the political interests of the US and other members of the Security Council.
Whittall says that it is essential for humanitarian organizations to stick to their core mission of representing the interests of the marginalized rather than furthering the “interests of the core state,” and that they need to form alliances with social movements, grassroots organizations, etc., to be truly effective. This is necessary for these organizations to “regain their legitimacy and face with integrity the push-back from those in power who see the delivery of assistance as impinging on their political and military strategies.”
Humanitarians also need to be aware of how false information (sometimes called misinformation) and propaganda (sometimes called disinformation) undermine their ability to do their job, worsen already complex crises, harm the people they are trying to help, and can even result in their death.
“The emergence of hybrid conflicts, mixing the spread of harmful information and cyber operations with kinetic operations, creates more suffering for affected populations. Harmful information… hinders the work of humanitarian organizations by calling into question their mandates and intentions, undermining their integrity, and making them and their staff a target of online and offline harassment and violence,” according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Humanitarians are uniquely positioned to help combat this problem by working with communities to address concerns both caused by and arising from the spread of false information.
How Is False Information Spreading and Why?
Some researchers, like Zoë Adams and Magda Osman et al., have argued that concerns about false information causing harmful behavior are “illusory.” “The assumption is that there is a direct causal link between the prevalence and consumption of misinformation and subsequent harmful behaviors. To date, however, this link has not been sufficiently demonstrated,” states their 2023 study, published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. They point out that we have shifted from viewing the world via “objective facts” to viewing it via “intersubjectivity,” which they define as “a coordination effort by two or more people to interpret entities in the world through social interaction.” The study adds that there is nothing inherently harmful about this shift and that there may be some benefits to democratizing concepts of truth.
However, there are many circumstances in which an increased amount of false information shared very rapidly has caused human suffering. “Spreading harmful information… could exacerbate the suffering of the most vulnerable people, and humanitarian operations. Harmful information is reported to induce psychological and social harm in both communities affected by conflict and among people serving those communities. Incorrect information prevents communities experiencing humanitarian emergencies from accessing important and lifesaving services, and undermines the ability of humanitarian organizations to deliver and implement effective interventions,” according to the Lancet.
Understanding how false information and propaganda spread and how they influence people helps us determine what can be done about it. As Mark Thomas Kennedy, from the Imperial College of London, argues, “Unless you understand how people consume information and learn, you’re not going to be able to have anything more than a conversation in which you’re shouted down or dismissed.”
According to a 2021 MIT study, most people are unaware that they are sharing false information online. However, other studies have indicated that a small population seeks to deceive—motivations for sharing disinformation range from financial to ideological. Based on a 2022 survey conducted in the U.S., researchers found that 14 percent of people were aware that the information they shared on social media was false. They also concluded that participants who “[share] false political information online” tend to be a specific type of person: they report having anti-social behavioral traits, such as a psychological need for chaos, a tendency toward psychopathy, sadism and paranoia; are more likely to have positive feelings for extremist groups like QAnon, the Proud Boys and white supremacists; and harbor desires to run for office and support political violence. Evidence also suggests that foreign governments are responsible for spreading false information in attempts to influence global affairs and shape political outcomes.
Another factor to consider in the spread of propaganda and false information online is technology itself. Social mediais the new epicenter of harmful information. Investigations by Amnesty International found that X’s “For You” page is designed to promote content that provokes outrage, heated exchanges, and reactions—otherwise known as “engagement.” Decisions to allow influencers with a track record of sharing fake content with their followers on social media platforms to spread that information can be directly linked to an increase in fake online news.
The rapid development of large language models (or LLMs), also known as AI, has led to a surge in computer-generated images. Now, stock image platforms like Adobe are allowing computer-generated content to be purchased from their libraries without any warning about whether the image is real. Worryingly, AI is increasingly spreading false information in its responses to the public’s queries. As people shift from asking “experts” for information, they have less control over the false information they are consuming. Not only do these models contain in-programmed biases, but they are also “hallucinating” inaccurate information. All of this has consequences for humanitarians and how they can perform their job effectively.
How False Information and Lack of Trust Are Impacting Humanitarian Work
According to the Lancet, “Complex humanitarian settings have become fertile environments for spreading misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation.” The situation is especially stressful for those witnessing humanitarian emergencies, as it is very challenging to distinguish between false and beneficial messages, given the sheer volume of information available on social media platforms.
The challenge of countering propaganda and false information becomes more difficult if people do not trust humanitarian organizations as reliable sources. “Unfortunately, too many human-rights NGOs—both large and small—suffer from a crisis of credibility. Persistent questions about their sources of funding, political bias, and lack of due diligence undermine the reliability of the information they espouse,” points out an article in the National Interest.
To understand how propaganda and trust affect humanitarian work, we examine its effects across three key areas of humanitarian work: global health, war and conflict, and support for refugees and asylum seekers:
Global Health
As writer and journalist Erica X Eisen states in her 2021 essay, hesitancy and propaganda campaigns around vaccines are as old as the first vaccine. Earlier, false information casting doubt on vaccines was limited to one or two pamphlets; it can now be found in hundreds of posts, articles, and videos being consumed daily. The World Health Organization (WHO) has labeled the rapid spread of misinformation as “infodemics” and sees it as a direct threat to public health. “Fake news spreads faster and more easily than this virus and is just as dangerous,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a review, the WHO found that 51 percent of posts talking about vaccinations contained false information.
During a disease outbreak, combating vaccine hesitancy has become a key part of the humanitarian response, taking up time and resources. The British Red Cross launched a campaign to dispel false information to support the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the UK, and UNICEF released a “Vaccine Misinformation Management Field Guide” for its workers.
To a certain extent, this hesitancy is understandable for new vaccines, as well as in communities where vaccines are less common or where they’ve led to avoidable negative experiences, for instance, due to unethical practices by international organizations. “In 2010, the Gates Foundation funded experimental malaria and meningitis vaccine trials across Africa and HPV vaccine programs in India. All of these programs resulted in numerous deaths and injuries, with accounts of forced vaccinations and uninformed consent,” according to an article by Sharmeen Ahmed in the Annual Survey of International and Comparative Law.
The lack of priority to human life over profits by pharma companies during the COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to vaccine hesitancy. As Gloria Giraldo of Latino Health Access pointed out in 2021, the inequities in the distribution of vaccines globally could result in “skepticism about the motives of vaccine makers and public health officials… especially among immigrants.”
Humanitarian organizations’ mistrust of local populations exacerbates the situation further. During the Ebola outbreak in 2014 in West Africa, aid organizations stereotyped the locals as “irrational, fearful, violent and primitive: as too ignorant to change.” This resulted in the treatment intervention focusing on “central, resource-intensive facilities, ignoring for months ‘responses and strategies that engage with and rely on communities,’” stated an ICRC blog.
Humanitarians need to be better equipped to navigate the issues of distrust and false information around public health and have been taking necessary measures to do so. When vaccine hesitancy becomes too widespread, it becomes very difficult to address and interferes with the ability of humanitarians to preserve human life.
“Measles, whooping cough, and other vaccine-preventable diseases are on the rise around the world, and cuts to foreign aid, coupled with growing vaccine hesitancy, and persistent gaps in vaccine access are fueling outbreaks in poor and wealthy nations alike,” states the Council on Foreign Relations.
Results from a randomized 2021 trial indicated that false information about COVID-19 vaccines “lowered the intent of recipients to vaccinate,” according to the BMJ. Missing vaccinations directly causes outbreaks of disease and preventable deaths. Previously controlled diseases like measles and meningitis are spreading in direct relation to an increase in the number of children missing their routine vaccines. These could lead to future epidemics. Resources used to tackle easily preventable diseases detract from the work needed to tackle other diseases or disasters.
In 2025, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “to cast aside its long-held position that vaccines do not cause autism,” stated the Politico. These unfounded claims amplify the spread of propaganda and are used to justify cuts to funding for international organizations supporting vital vaccine drives. Communities in conflict particularly rely on humanitarian organizations to deliver vaccines, and children are most vulnerable without proper vaccinations. These circumstances could lead to more children dying if humanitarian organizations have fewer resources and are overstretched trying to tackle vaccine hesitancy in countries where vaccines are available.
War and Conflict
The development of fake images and videos is increasingly becoming a problem in conflict situations. Since the 1850s, photography has changed people’s perceptions of war and conflict by depicting the harsh realities faced by average soldiers and civilians. Since then, we’ve regarded photographs and videos as factual, trustworthy evidence, especially for documenting human conflict and humanitarian work.
To a certain extent, the idea that photography and videos depict truth has always been an illusion. As soon as photography was invented, so was doctoring or staging photographs. However, the ability to create fake images was reserved for people with specific skills and knowledge. Now, anyone with internet access can create a fake image and spread it online within minutes. Already, misleading AI depictions of war zones are being created.
Images have a deep impact on how we perceive truth. Humanitarians have relied heavily on powerful images to communicate the necessity of their work and draw attention to human suffering. Conflict is inherently chaotic and secretive, and conveying the on-the-ground reality to those not experiencing it is difficult. Images, however, have proven useful in demonstrating the reality of conflict. There is a real risk that fake images can mislead people about the events taking place during conflicts and can reduce the power of visual media to change hearts and minds.
More tangibly, fake images or false reports about a conflict can make it more difficult for humanitarians to hold people accountable for breaking international humanitarian law (IHL). When an explosion killed hundreds of people at the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza in October 2023, a storm of fake images, misleading videos, and unsubstantiated claims took over social media, making it very difficult for experts to understand who was accountable for attacking the hospital (a protected building under IHL). As a senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, John Scott-Railton explained, such a large volume of false information is a “uniquely unhelpful” environment for truth and accountability. Indeed, propaganda has played a huge role in conflicts. An environment where nothing can be trusted allows both sides to denounce all reporting and evidence of human rights abuses as “fake.” This is most evident in the campaign to discredit journalists in Gaza, which is being used to justify killing them.
This compounds an alarming trend of weakening IHL and the values on which humanitarianism is founded. Erica Harper, head of research and policy studies at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, explains that “International humanitarian law stands at a crossroads… violations that were once considered shocking exceptions have become persistent, widespread, and too often tolerated.”
In March 2025, 15 paramedics and first responders, including eight Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics, were killed by the Israeli military. After the attack, the Israeli military said that the incident was a result of “professional failures,” with the troops opening fire “on what they believed to be a ‘tangible threat’ amid what the military called an ‘operational misunderstanding,’” according
Another aspect harming humanitarian work in these situations is the lack of trust in these organizations. To be truly effective, nonprofits and international agencies need to build and maintain trust in communities. A 2025 Washington Post article pointed to a situation where a mother of three in South Sudan refused to take airdropped food supplies that bore the flag of the country that had bombarded her village.
Refugees and Asylum Seekers
Misunderstandings about the rights and circumstances of people who seek asylum in other countries have long been an issue for humanitarian organizations. Although a 2024 Ipsos survey showed that global attitudes toward people seeking sanctuary remained broadly positive, sentiment was less positive in Western nations. In general, people confuse refugees (people fleeing persecution or danger) and migrants (people moving to a new country for familial or economic reasons). This environment of uncertainty is a breeding ground for propaganda. “Migration is an ideal topic for those pushing lies and half-truths to spread confusion, fear, anger, or prejudice. It is a complex phenomenon where the facts can be difficult to ascertain or explain,” wrote Alberto-Horst Neidhardt and Paul Butcher for the Migration Policy Institute.
This becomes particularly problematic when this topic is prominently featured in public discourse and contains factually incorrect information. In 2024, a year of elections internationally, migration was a key issue for voters. For a long time now, migration has been blamed for a decline in standards of living in the West, fueled by continuous propaganda. People seeking asylum (or migrants more generally) are often wrongly targeted for causing housing scarcity, overwhelming the health care system, and taking away jobs from citizens, despite evidence to the contrary.
People tend to overestimate the number of immigrants in their country. There are persistent claims in the UK, Canada, and other countries that asylum seekers or migrants receive substantial assistance from the government upon arrival, despite this not being true. During the 2024 U.S. election, stereotypical claims that Haitian migrants in Ohio were eating people’s pets became a key point of debate. Politicians increasingly focus on attacking migrants and use terminology like “illegal aliens” to dehumanize people and stoke further confusion about their right to be in the country.
“From Afghanistan to Ukraine and beyond, each development concerning global migrant flows or the management of cultural diversity can give rise to a new stream of disinformation, with significant consequences for policymaking, public discourse, and social relations. Conspiracy theories are also frequently used as a rhetorical tool by far-right movements and nativist politicians to advocate for hardline anti-immigration policies and mobilize their voters,” explain Horst Neidhardt and Butcher.
False claims about immigrants influence how people vote and encourage people to support politicians who offer “solutions.” For example, according to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees report, there is clear evidencethat “offering safe and legal routes can help to reduce irregular migration and limit loss of life,” by reducing the number of people crossing the English Channel by boat. The British government has, however, chosen a hardline approach to this social issue. Channel crossings result in people’s deaths, but politicians are more interested in appeasing voters, whose opinions are largely influenced by harmful information, than in offering genuine solutions.
Humanitarian schemes to provide support for refugees and asylum seekers are failing thanks to false information. These campaigns focus our attention on attacking “the other” rather than on addressing chronic societal issues. They create hostility in diverse communities and threaten people’s rights to seek safety during dangerous situations.
“Humanitarian organizations have struggled with how best to protect refugees and other vulnerable people from the harms caused by hate speech and false information,” states the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The organization found that the escalation of violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar resulted from social media platforms spreading disinformation and hate speech against them. Situations like this lead to questioning of “vital protection information” that humanitarians are required to share during such a crisis.
Failure by humanitarian organizations to meet migrants’ needs is also eroding the trust people place in them. “[T]he vast humanitarian needs of migrants in vulnerable situations are, for a variety of reasons, often not being fully met. These migrants also often have only a fragile trust in humanitarian organizations. … When organizations do not remain independent or are not perceived as such, this jeopardizes their ability to serve migrants in need. Protecting individuals’ data, avoiding involvement with governments’ implementation of immigration policies, and carefully considering whether to support activities such as returns has immediate implications for real or perceived independence and affects migrants’ trust,” stated a Migration Policy Institute 2023 article.
Potential Solutions to the Misinformation Problem
The UNICEF “Vaccine Misinformation Management Field Guide” starts by emphasizing that staff shouldn’t be distracted by the falsehoods. It tells humanitarians on the ground to be aware that people are understandably distressed in times of crisis and encourages them to listen to and address genuine concerns. As the American Psychological Association explains, people are more likely to believe misinformation when they are anxious since they appeal to emotions like fear and anger. They are looking for confirmation of what they already believe; they are putting their trust in the idea that comforts them, which tells them they were right all along. This gets to the crux of solving the problem of propaganda: trust.
If the post-truth era reflects a shift in people’s understanding of whom or what to trust, it should also reflect a shift in how we earn people’s trust. Former president of the International Federation of the Red Cross, Francesco Rocca, puts it succinctly when he said, “When people don’t trust us, then our ability to help them—to do what we are supposed to do—is eroded.”
If people trust a person or an organization, they are more likely to listen to what they have to say versus the random information they read online. Only through building strong levels of trust can we encourage people to question their own beliefs and accept alternative viewpoints. Humanitarian organizations need to understand that they cannot expect trust; they have to earn it. We have seen how people are easily won over by words and images, even false ones. However, trust can also be easily lost when not accompanied by action.
Humanitarians should demonstrate solutions to people’s problems and take action on their concerns. They should work harder to tackle poverty and inequality. Research has suggested that low GDP levels correlate with a lack of trust. Every community has its own issues. Communities struggling to access basic amenities and consistently let down by government institutions are less likely to trust others.
Humanitarian organizations also have to ask who should build this trust and deliver the information to communities. The international aid model or humanitarian system reflects a “colonial mindset,” says Kennedy Odede, head of Shining Hope for Communities that works in Kenyan slums, and ignores the “cultural knowledge” of grassroots organizations. “They believe they can just walk into a community and they’ll solve the problem if they have enough money, but that’s not how you create change.”
Evidence shows that people are more likely to trust members of their own in-groups. Efforts to build trust and tackle false information should therefore come from within the community. More responsibility and influence should be given to grassroots leaders and groups to build trust, challenge misconceptions, deliver services, and communicate accurate information within communities.
“Understanding where and how communities obtain their information will help… [humanitarians] identify who they trust and the main channels they use to communicate,” states Frontline Negotiations. This can help an individual or an organization develop a plan to counter propaganda before it becomes widespread.
Once trust is built, a clear strategy is required to ensure that effective communication addresses false information and challenges the bias and preconceived beliefs. Studies have suggested that using a storytelling approach to present facts makes the information easier to digest and understand.
These tactics respond to false information, but is there a way to reduce it? The United Nations suggests that states promote free and independent media rather than introducing curbs to reduce the spread of misinformation.
“Some States have carried out digital and media literacy programs to enable more resilient and meaningful participation online. Such initiatives serve to promote critical thinking skills that empower people to identify, dispel and debunk disinformation. States should also invest in tools and mechanisms that support independent fact-checking with the participation of journalists and civil society,” the organization adds.
We also have to do more to hold people accountable for the harm their decision-making inflicts, whether those are politicians and military generals who intentionally use false information to manipulate, or tech companies that allow false and harmful content to proliferate in society.
While there is no definitive way to ensure that all information in the world is honest and true, humanitarians can do their bit by building trust within communities and responding to people’s concerns to help counter propaganda and mitigate harm. This should be a top priority for humanitarian organizations, as it falls within their remit to preserve human life.
The ICRC has pointed to three ways in which humanitarian organizations can combat misinformation: During a conflict, protecting those most affected by the misinformation should be the top priority. Secondly, the “resilience and agency” of the people and community should be strengthened. Thirdly, humanitarian organizations should ensure “principled humanitarian action in the digital age” both offline and online.
Combating false information requires coordinated efforts at all levels. At the global level, as rising conflicts make humanitarian work more important, what is needed is a collaboration platform rooted within the humanitarian architecture to help frame a common agenda. This could include developing a joint advocacy position on online platforms, increasing collaboration, and pooling resources wherever necessary.
This article was produced for the Observatory by the Independent Media Institute. It is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
