The Shrinking Humanitarian Space on Social Media: What this means for the security of aid workers

Insecurity Insight's new report explores how digital narratives are impacting the safety of aid workers across the Sahel. This blog highlights some of their key findings, and how security managers can approach these growing challenges.

Insights from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger

Insecurity Insight’s new report, The Humanitarian Space on Social Media: Learning from Social Media Narratives in the Sahel (French version here) shows how public online narratives are steadily eroding the foundations of neutral and independent aid work. Drawing on more than a year of systematic monitoring of public social-media content and over 14,000 comments, the report uncovers how digital narratives and disinformation are undermining trust, acceptance, and consequently the safety for aid actors across the region.

When perception becomes risk

The Sahel’s security landscape has long been volatile, but the report highlights a growing convergence between digital hostility and physical insecurity. Narratives that question the legitimacy of aid, portraying it as politicised, corrupt or foreign-controlled, are now shaping community attitudes, operational access, and government policy decisions.

Even factual updates about aid activities often trigger suspicion: shaped through online discussions such neutral information about activities is recast as evidence of hidden agendas. Over time, these narratives accumulate and harden into public assumptions, corroding the acceptance that has traditionally protected aid staff on the ground.

Why this matters now

The consequences are real. Across the Sahel, social-media hostility has coincided with operational suspensions, arrests of aid workers, and in some cases, direct attacks. As online and offline threats merge, safeguarding humanitarian legitimacy can no longer be treated as a matter of communications — it is a core component of risk assessments to ensure staff safety.

These are not isolated incidents. They reflect a broader global trend: the shrinking of humanitarian space through both physical and digital pressure. In an era where information is weaponised, perception itself has become an operational risk.

From communications to acceptance

The core message of the report is clear: digital legitimacy has become a critical component of aid security. Aid agencies should broaden their understanding of “risk” to include the narratives that shape their social licence to operate. These narratives increasingly undermine humanitarian principles and, in doing so, endanger both staff and operations.

This shift requires more than strategies for reactive messaging or crisis responses to disinformation. The analysis shows that security incidents themselves often act as triggers for the mis- and disrepresentation of aid activities and intentions. Effective risk assessment must therefore include contextual information gathered through online monitoring of the information environment—not only to track references to one’s own organisation, but also to understand the broader sentiment towards the aid sector as a whole and the ways in which these narratives shape the security context for all.

Effective digital situational awareness can help identify early warning signs of hostility, allowing agencies to adjust their posture, strengthen community engagement, and prevent escalation before it manifests in the physical space.

Local partners are often more effective than international actors at communicating in ways that generate approval rather than misunderstanding. Rooted in their communities, they benefit from greater credibility and, when supported to speak in their own voice, can play a key role in countering harmful perceptions.

Towards a dual-space security approach

In contexts like the Sahel, security managers, analysts and programme teams need to incorporate online risk factors into operational planning, just as they would consider checkpoints, road conditions, or armed-group movements. A holistic view of staff safety must include understanding how misinformation or misinterpretation online can endanger personnel, obstruct access or delegitimise aid altogether.

At the same time, the digital sphere should not be seen only as a threat. The report also highlights its potential as a tool for trust-building, accountability and community dialogue. When aid organisations communicate transparently, listen actively and elevate trusted local voices, social-media spaces can become sites of resilience rather than hostility.

Moreover, local partners’ ability to navigate the online information space creates opportunities for more equitable approaches to security risk management, in which international and local actors collaborate by sharing expertise and practice both ways. 

What can be done? 

Integrating information-environment risk assessments into security management, and developing guidance on how to engage safely around security risks online, remains a major challenge. This is not only due to the complexity of the task itself, but also because security management in most aid agencies is still largely disconnected from the work of communications teams.

Here are some takeaways that could be brought into internal discussions within security teams and the security managers community:

• Digital legitimacy is now security-critical. In contexts such as the Sahel—and many others—it should be treated as an integral part of security risk management, alongside physical security.
• Shared monitoring strengthens situational awareness. Sector-wide collaboration can help track emerging narratives about the aid sector and anticipate risks. Insecurity Insight is currently monitoring the Sahel, the DRC and Myanmar. (Subscribe and share your questions.)
• Work with local partners as equal security actors. In contested information environments, local organisations often communicate more effectively than international agencies. When developing shared security risk practices with local partners, include joint discussions on sector-wider reputation risks on the agenda.
• Invest in digital risk literacy. Train staff in digital security. Seek conversations with your communications teams to raise awareness of how online narratives—even those that never mention your organisation—can undermine humanitarian principles, jeopardise staff safety, and threaten access.

Read and share the full report from Insecurity Insight here, and in French here. See also their report on the digital space in Myanmar.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views or position of GISF or the author’s employers. 

Image Credit: Jamillah Knowles & Reset.Tech Australia / People on phones (portrait) / Licenced by CC-BY 4.0

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