"This study forms part of the Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG)’s wider research on humanitarian ‘digital divides’. Drawing on existing literature, interviews with humanitarian practitioners and research with people affected by crisis in Venezuela and Uganda, it explores how the presence of soci ... al media in humanitarian crises intersects with efforts to make humanitarian aid more inclusive. It finds that, despite almost a decade of bold claims regarding the potential for social media to support humanitarian action, practical engagements among humanitarian actors are, for the most part, still on the starting block. Yet, given the steady expansion of internet access and smartphone use worldwide, social media is likely to play an increasingly prominent role for affected people in current and future crises. Consequently, it is not a phenomenon humanitarian actors can continue to side-step. Given the tendency of social media platforms to mirror and amplify existing dynamics of marginalisation, a specific focus on promoting inclusion will need to be at the heart of efforts to engage more deeply as part of fundamental humanitarian commitments to impartiality and to ‘do no harm’." (Executive summary) more

"The testimonies of caminantes [migrants and refugees travelling primarily by foot] interviewed for this study highlight the significant limitations of social media as a tool for inclusion among populations on the move in Venezuela and Colombia. It is important to note that caminantes are an acutely ... vulnerable population, and their experience is not necessarily reflective of other people affected by the crisis in Venezuela. Indeed, other evidence has demonstrated cases elsewhere in the country where networking across social media has proved a vital way for people to link up with sources of support in the face of collapsing state service provision. It is especially striking that, for many caminantes – even those who were previously well-off – years of economic hardship and the experience of displacement itself have driven them back across the ‘digital divide’. Although some of our interviewees indicated that they were familiar with social media, particularly Facebook, this is one of the first things they gave up as their living conditions became more precarious. This challenges the idea that people move steadily forward into more connected lives as their encounters with new digital technologies proliferate. It also sounds a note of caution against assumptions that people displaced from middle-income settings are likely to be more connected. While many people affected by conflict in Syria and elsewhere were able to flee with some of their assets intact, using their phones as digital lifelines on their journeys, this option was not available to interviewees in this study, for whom the erosion of their resources and livelihoods to almost nothing was itself part of the motivation to flee." (Conclusion, page 14-15) more

"The potential benefits of increased digitalisation to refugees, living in situations where access to information and spaces for communication exchange are of the essence, are yet to be realised. Uganda’s forced migrants, both those in refugee settlements and those self-settled in urban areas, hav ... e demonstrated their eagerness to get and stay connected to the internet through social media platforms, regardless of the challenging context. The internet connectivity available to them ranges from cellular networking, wireless local area networking to personal area networking technologies. As communications systems and networks continue to grow and new social media applications are developed, the lives of refugees and humanitarians operating in settings of asylum are in reasingly likely to be affected in dynamic ways. As Maitland (2020) reminds us, connectivity (and its risks) can help overcome or ameliorate some of the sources of vulnerability. The road ahead is paved with complexities associated with refugee protection and inclusion in humanitarian programming in a ubiquitous digital environment, further accelerated by the exigencies of social distancing due to Covid-19." (Conclusion, page 35) more