Countering Misinformation In South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
THE CHALLENGE
Harmful rumours and misinformation present significant threats to peace and stability in many parts of the world since they can exacerbate tensions and contribute to conflict. These factors also present challenges for people living in conflict-affected and fragile contexts since they hinder their ability to make effective decisions about how to navigate dangerous situations. Rumours and misinformation can also complicate responses to crises by generating distrust toward humanitarian responders and degrading their situational awareness.
THE SOLUTION
To counter misinformation, the Sentinel Project for Genocide Prevention created the WikiRumours platform which crowdsources rumor reports and then fact-checks them with support from on-the-ground, trained moderators. By serving as a source of verified facts, the platform provides accurate, unbiased information to community members, humanitarian actors, and local authorities to improve knowledge of human rights violations and inform appropriate decisions and actions to counter major threats. With support from CHIC seed funding, the Sentinel Project team worked to enhance the WikiRumours software platform while testing its effectiveness in the field. The project team engaged over 27,000 subscribers in DRC and South Sudan where there are high rates of misinformation spread. Through subscribing to the platform, users were able to directly report rumours and receive verified rumour content. Throughout the CHIC funding period, WikiRumors addressed 454 unique rumors in South Sudan and 307 in DRC. This significantly increased access to accurate information, while reducing the risk of violence by dispelling false rumours which might have otherwise exacerbated tensions between different communities. In cases where actual crises did occur, including inter-communal violence and activities by armed groups which threatened civilian populations, WikiRumours helped to increase situational awareness so that members of the affected communities could make more informed decisions about how to navigate dangerous situations.
